In the Forbidden City of Nanjing, Zhu Cihong was discussing tax matters with a group of cabinet ministers.

Sufficient tax revenue is still a necessary condition for maintaining the normal operation of a country, let alone troubled times.

In troubled times, if the imperial court wanted to maintain its prestige, it had to maintain a large enough army, and military spending alone was a large amount of money every year. Of course, this money also has to be drawn from taxes.

Although there are still nearly 10 million taels in Zhu Cihong's internal funds, it is enough for the army to consume for two or three years, and it is always right to take precautions.

The existing tax system of Daming can be basically divided into several large blocks.

A large part is the agricultural tax, which is basically the main source of tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the taxation mode of agricultural tax was very unreasonable, and the gentry and vassal kings were exempt from taxes, and all the taxes were borne by the small people of Shengdou. High taxes, droughts and locust plagues can easily cause yeoman farmers to go bankrupt, and then gather into large numbers of displaced people. If you are a little used by someone with a heart, you will pull out a team like Li Chuang.

If we want to reform the agricultural tax, we must get rid of the bad rule that the tax exemption for acres of land under the name of the gentry must be abolished, otherwise no matter how much it is changed, it will be a change of soup and no change of medicine.

In addition to agricultural taxes, the largest part is the commercial tax.

Commercial taxes are very complicated, there are many types, but the percentage of the commission is not high, coupled with the collusion between officials and businessmen, in the end, most of the silver went into the pockets of officials, and the court did not get much.

Of course, there is a special classification in commercial tax, that is, sea tax.

In essence, the sea tax is also a kind of commercial tax, but because the levy objects are mainly large and small maritime merchants, it can be listed separately.

I am afraid that only Zhu Cihong and the Zheng family know the abundance of sea taxes.

Needless to say, Zhu Cihong's soul comes from later generations and knows the way clearly.

As for the Zheng family, I am afraid that they are the biggest beneficiaries of the collection of sea taxes.

According to later documents, in the last years of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong could earn 10 million taels of silver a year just by extracting sea taxes.

And the Ming court's various levies and levies and levies could not collect so many taxes in a year.

It is not an exaggeration to describe the Zheng family as rich and rivaling the country.

So much so that in the later period, Zheng Zhilong did not disdain to go to sea to do business by himself, but sat in Fujian and supported the huge sailors by collecting taxes.

For today's Daming, sea tax is definitely an important source of income.

However, judging from the previous situation of Zhu Cihong and Zheng Zhilong's agreement to open the Huangming Trade Chamber of Commerce, they are not very optimistic.

From May to November, in half a year, Zheng Zhilong successively sent a dividend of one million taels of silver to Nanjing.

If Zheng Zhilong earns 10 million taels a year, he should give the court a profit of 5 million taels a year, and it should be 2.5 million taels in half a year.

But Zheng Zhilong only sent one million taels of silver, indicating that Zheng Zhilong only took out 20% of the profits to the imperial court instead of the 50% agreed by the two parties.

It's just a mess of Hanako!

Of course, Zhu Cihong was extremely angry in his heart.

Taxation was originally the prerogative of the imperial court, and Zhu Cihong was now sharing this power with the Zheng family. Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhilong's gang was a disobedient person who treated the court as a fool.

That is, those cabinet ministers who have not seen the huge profits of maritime trade will be greatly surprised when they see the one million taels sent by Zheng Zhilong.

But with Zhu Cihong's current strength, he can't turn his face with Zheng Zhilong, and a big war may break out in Huguang and Shandong at any time, and the rear must not be chaotic at this time.

Zhu Cihong could only consider collecting taxes from other coastal provinces first. After all, Daming is not only Fujian by the sea.

Zhu Cihong divided the maritime trade into two types: the north and the south.

The south must go to the Nanyang countries, which can start from Guangdong and bypass Fujian.

As for the north, there are even more options.

Zhejiang, Shandong, and even Tianjin can.

In addition to the trade between the provinces, the most common maritime trade in the north was with Japan.

Previously, this part of the maritime trade was mainly monopolized by the Zheng family, and Zhu Cihong decided to intervene and negotiate with the Japanese side in the name of the imperial court.

This move is also a reminder to Zheng Zhilong that the court of the Zheng family can collect sea taxes without it.

Of course, even if you add all of these together, I'm afraid you won't receive two or three million taels a year.

After all, the imperial court has just started in this regard, and it is not as good as the Zheng family, who has been engaged in this industry for more than ten years.

The sea trade ratio is the channel, and the imperial court does not have much to do except for the advantage in the general righteousness.

But this thing has to be tried. Because if you don't do it, the gap will get bigger and bigger.

Just like the sailor, if Zhu Cihong didn't order the Longjiang Shipyard to do its best to build a warship, how would the team of the Denglai sailor get up?

The collection of sea taxes has a quick effect, but it is difficult to reach the level of the Zheng family at the peak in a few years.

The biggest headache for Zhu Cihong is the mining tax.

Wanli once set up mine supervisors in various places, who were specifically responsible for the collection of mining taxes.

Since the mine supervisors are all ministers who came out of the palace and are very loyal to the court and the emperor, the court can still receive a large amount of tax and silver every year.

However, this hindered the interests of the scholars and the Donglin Party, and was consistently criticized by the civilian class.

Just because of the collection of mining taxes, the spitting stars of the civil officials were about to spray on the face of Emperor Wanli.

However, Emperor Wanli is also tough enough, and he has not been intimidated, you spray yours, and I will collect yours. It was precisely by relying on sea taxes and mining taxes that Emperor Wanli could afford to raise hundreds of thousands of border troops and fight the three major campaigns.

But when Zhu Cihong's cheap father Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, everything changed.

You said that you just abolished the brocade guard, and even the mining tax was abolished.

Just because the civil service class advocates that the Son of Heaven does not compete with the people for profit.

Well, the Son of Heaven no longer competes with the people for profit, and these benefits are all seized by the official gentry class.

Zhu Cihong ordered people to do a preliminary inventory, and found that most of the suspended mines have not stopped mining now, but are in full swing.

And it was the local gentry who mined these mines.

This really slapped Emperor Chongzhen in the face.

Of course, Zhu Cihong is not ready to let these moths dig into the corners of Daming's walls and steal Daming's wealth.

But he was not ready to follow the old path of Emperor Wanli. Don't you think that the imperial court is competing with the people for profit by extracting mining taxes? Well, I won't take taxes, and I will directly purchase and underwrite!

Needless to say, gold and copper mines, all the minerals obtained from mining are filled into the national treasury and internal funds. The other minerals, from mining to sales, are completed in a one-stop manner, completely in the name of the imperial court.

This is tantamount to announcing in disguise that the Ming minerals belong to the imperial court, and making those civil officials who will only ask others to shut up with double standards.

This is also what Zhu Cihong has always wanted to do but failed to do. Because the army in his hands was insufficient before, he was afraid that it would be difficult to suppress the situation.

Now Zhu Cihong doesn't need to worry, if someone takes the lead in making trouble, he will be arrested and imprisoned directly. Some people raised troops to make a rebellion and directly led the army to level it. It's time to sober up those brain-filled moths, and the interests of the court are above all else!

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