"Breed people, subtract silver"

The second year of Xingqian was an extremely important year for the Ming Dynasty, and it was in this year that the Ming court exempted the "Ding Fu". When the Xingqian Dynasty was established, it still followed the system of the Ming Dynasty, and the land tax and Ding Yin were levied separately. Although the exemption of money and grain has been implemented many times before, the exemption of the field endowment does not mean that the reduction of Ding Yin, and compared with the Tian Fu of no more than 0.1 taels per mu, or even as low as 0.01 taels, Ding men are more than one tael or even six or seven taels of Ding Yin, which is the real bulk of the imperial court's income.

It is precisely because of this that in the second year of Xingqian, when Emperor Xingqian decided to "deduct Ding Yin", in the face of the reduction of fiscal revenue of more than 7 million taels per year, there was almost a voice of opposition, and in the midst of strong opposition, it was finally passed.

Since then, "breeding people and subtracting silver" has shown its effect in that year, not only the "hidden ding" hidden in the people have been reported, but also the increase in the number of people has also been rapid. The population has surged from less than 35 million in the second year of Xingqian to 54 million, and the population has increased by nearly 20 million in just three years.

“…… Your Majesty, last month, according to the statistics of the new household registration of the Criminal Department, in the first half of this year, the new birth population of Daming exceeded 2.6 million, and the minister estimated that the population of Daming will exceed this year, at least close to 60 million, according to this rate of development, even if there is a decline in the next few years, then ten years later, the population of Daming will exceed 10,000! ”

Following His Majesty's side step by step, Zhu Daxian's tone seemed extremely happy, the population growth tends to increase, which is a good thing for the country, and such a strong population growth momentum is enough to be breathtaking, which can be said to be unprecedented in ancient times. Of course, this is also related to the fact that after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Kou, in the brutal massacre, most of the survivors were young and middle-aged, and now not only the young and middle-aged people of that year can still have children, but their children have also begun to give birth.

"From this point of view, His Majesty's decision to dismiss Ding Yin back then is really a good will! Not only did the people benefit, but the court also benefited, and the income of the court actually increased rather than decreased. This is what Zhu Daxian admires His Majesty the most, it seems to be a "loss-making business", but it is completely reversed here by His Majesty.

"Of course, the exemption of people is not only to really grasp the population, but also to breed people, as long as the population increases, everything will naturally increase, not to mention that the salt price raised by the imperial court at that time has basically made up for the "loss", the extra people need to farm, need clothes, need agricultural tools, the market has expanded, the products have increased, and the imperial court will naturally be able to profit from it......"

When mentioning "loss", the corners of Zhu Mingzhong's lips were slightly raised, with some sarcasm in his heart, whether it is now or for hundreds of years, for the government, tax reduction is often the most painful thing, no less than cutting his heart, even if it is reduced from this end, he will find a way to collect it from the other end, in other words, in their eyes, the people will always be a flock of sheep, this wool always needs to be sheared, just how to shear, how to cut and already, but also plucking, not let them call, this is the essence of taxation.

Although at this time, the existence of rural handicrafts prevented the government from collecting commercial taxes as in later generations, but with the increase in population and the prosperity of the market, the government still collected taxes through the collection of circulation taxes, also known as "customs duties".

Find a way to defeat the handicraft industry with a factory!

Thinking of the market of more than 50 million people, who can only receive a few million taels of commercial taxes every year, Zhu Mingzhong has a headache.

"But even if it is very profitable, but, Pingchen, we must also see that now, our business tax still has room to further tap the potential."

Turning his head to look at Zhu Daxian, as a cabinet minister, he was mainly in charge of the criminal department, but this did not prevent Zhu Mingzhong from discussing these issues with him, after all, the cabinet still needs to agree in the end.

"Your Majesty means a tax increase?"

His brows jumped slightly, and Zhu Daxian's tone became uncomfortable.

"Your Majesty, now the tax amount of the domestic sub-export tariff is from 3% to 15%, and it can no longer be levied, and if it is levied again, it will lead to a tax that seriously hurts the people......

When explaining the composition of commercial taxes, Zhu Daxian said tentatively.

"Your Majesty, as far as the commercial tax on the sub-export tariffs and the apportionment tax at the stores in circulation is concerned, the commercial tax in our dynasty is already extremely heavy, and if it is further increased, I am afraid that it will provoke a business change."

"That's not what I'm referring to!"

Zhu Mingzhong said directly.

"I'm talking about the tax-exempt ones!"

"Tax-free!"

His Majesty's words made Zhu Daxian stunned, and he couldn't even react. In addition to the unified tax of factories and mines, the most important thing in the commercial tax is the collection of sub-export tariffs. However, after the Xingqian, he repeatedly emphasized that according to the "tax law" of the imperial court, unless it was used for military supplies and disaster relief, even if the imperial court released official rice, it was necessary to pay the sub-mouth tariff, and other tax evasion would be severely punished.

"Your Majesty, now the Ming Dynasty's sub-mouth tariffs are almost not tax-exempt, pretending to be tax-free for military supplies or disaster relief materials, not only will you be fined a hundred times, but if you exceed 100 taels, you will be beheaded, and the whole family will be flowed, and more than 1,000 taels will be flowed into the three clans. Who would dare to evade taxes? ”

The Xingqian Dynasty believed that "taxation is the foundation of government affairs", and it is precisely for this reason that the imperial court attaches great importance to taxation. Because of this, there are even nobles who have been revoked for more than ten taels of tax evasion, not to mention other people. Now who dares to break the law with his own body, Zhu Daxian believes that no one is willing to take such a big risk.

"I'm not talking about tax evaders, I'm talking about ordinary people!"

Glancing into the distance, Zhu Mingzhong said in a relatively calm tone.

"If I'm not mistaken, the tax is 12% for cotton, 8% for linen, and 8% for cotton......."

After saying these numbers, Zhu Mingzhong said again.

"According to the statistics of the Ministry of Households, last year, the output of yarn mills in the country was more than 23,000 tons, but how to fold cotton cloth, according to our tax on cotton cloth, 70% of the cotton yarn is missing!"

His Majesty's words made Zhu Daxian stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly said.

"Your Majesty, such a large sect is by no means deliberately evaded taxes, as far as the minister knows, because machine yarn is cheaper than native yarn, so the people are willing to use machine yarn to weave cloth, and then ......"

After a sudden pause, Zhu Daxian finally understood what His Majesty meant.

"Your Majesty, do you mean to impose a tax on the native goods that the people spin and weave for their own sale? Your Majesty, since ancient times, there has been no reason to levy taxes on the people's own production and sale of local goods, at least if they are not local, they must not be taxed......"

Just thought that His Majesty wanted to levy this tax, Zhu Daxian hurriedly dissuaded.

"Moreover, the court is not short of that bit of silver now......"

"That's a lot of silver!"

Zhu Mingzhong glanced at Zhu Daxian, and then said.

"At present, 70% of the cotton cloth on the market is produced and sold locally by the people, and only 30% is the cloth or the cloth trafficked over long distances, which is the 30%, and the annual tax is no less than hundreds of thousands of taels. Male plough and female weaver ......"

Sighing at this thousand-year-old tradition, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"This situation always has to be broken, there is no tax on the people's self-production and self-sale, which also has to be divided into types, this kind of self-spinning and self-selling, in terms of the imperial court in industrial development, is not a good thing, self-production can produce agricultural and sideline products. As for home-grown goods such as cotton, it seems to me that it is better to replace them with industrial products like spinning......"

For Zhu Mingzhong, who comes from the 21st century, he knows that this kind of self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy is almost no less than a stumbling block on the road to the development of the commodity economy.

"If we can't replace them with industrial products, if we can't build a number of industrialized factories or workshops in which cotton yarn and cotton cloth are produced, then, in the end, we will have to face another ...... Riot! ”

Zhu Mingzhong, who originally wanted to use "revolution" to describe it, changed his words to the more accustomed title of people of this era.

"Riot?"

Zhu Daxian looked at His Majesty with some puzzlement.

"Your Majesty, please."

"With the continuous increase of population, agriculture is bound to be unable to absorb enough people, perhaps through the rental of official land, like the Han Dynasty "fake people's public land", those landless displaced people can be resettled on state-owned land, so that the state can increase income, and the displaced people can also temporarily get production and living conditions. However, this does not solve the problem fundamentally, because the population is increasing, and the increase in land is limited, and even tens of millions of people moving overseas will not change the reality of rapid population growth......"

Zhu Mingzhong, who knows exactly how fast the Chinese population will grow in the next two hundred years, knows what the "breeding of people" will bring in the end - hundreds of millions of Chinese who are stuck in hunger and poverty.

"When agriculture can't absorb enough people, then there will be a large number of displaced people, and they may become outcasts, and they can become the source of riots!"

"Your Majesty, the Nanyang Zhuxia and the Zhuxia sealed by His Majesty's heirs in the future can absorb hundreds of millions of people."

Zhu Daxian obviously forgot who first proposed the division of Zhuxia and the dispersal of the displaced people, and as the proposer of this theory, how could Zhu Mingzhong not know the shortcomings.

"Quantity!"

Looking at Zhu Daxian, Zhu Mingzhong smiled bitterly.

"Maybe in the next two hundred years, there will be 10,000 people, or even 20,000 people from all over the world, but maybe, at that time, there will be 20,000 people living in the Ming Dynasty, and at that time, how can the Ming Dynasty provide enough land for them to cultivate? At that point, what to do? ”

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