Chapter 457: Commercial Tax Crisis

The spring breeze blew through Chang'an City, blowing green the willows on both sides of Suzaku Avenue and melting the ice and snow on the Qujiang River. The wheat on both sides of the Qujiang River began to fill and set ears in the spring breeze, and the canal connecting Chang'an and Luoyang also melted ice, making the river wider and more ships coming and going.

In the new year, the new atmosphere, under the leadership of Li Shimin, after wars again and again, the Tang Dynasty is now invincible on all sides, and it is foreseeable that there will be no more wars for a long time. Without war, the population multiplied and grew, and agricultural commerce made great progress. Under the leadership of the entire imperial court and local levels, the strength of the Tang Dynasty is thriving day by day.

And the reason why such progress can be made is inseparable from the rule of the officials of the Zhenguan Dynasty. Li Shimin attaches great importance to the rule of officials, and in the early years of Zhenguan, he vigorously rectified the rule of officials, eliminated redundant personnel, and of course, there were many old ministers of martial virtue. In the future, when inspecting officials, state and county officials must be personally inspected by him to examine their character, ability, and other indicators. and vigorously promoted young officials. These measures made the Zhenguan Dynasty, which was the later era of Gaozong, and the officials of the Wuzhou Dynasty were all clear, and there were few corruption cases.

After February, news came out of the palace that Li Shimin was sick. When they heard the news, all the ministers couldn't help but be stunned at the same time.

You must know that Li Shimin went to the battlefield at the age of sixteen to fight, and although his martial arts are not as good as those of Wei Chi Jingde, Cheng Yanjin and other generals, he is not weak. In addition, every time he goes to the battlefield, he is protected by a large number of generals, so he is not injured much. It is physically robust and rarely falls ill. Although he suffers from wind disease, he rarely has a seizure because of proper maintenance, and he takes refuge in the summer heat.

It's just early spring, the weather is slightly warmer, and there is still a cold wind howling between heaven and earth. Wind diseases mostly occur in summer, so Li Shimin's illness is not a wind disease. It was that he had a cold.

Without Li Shimin, this court meeting did not go on much, and many things were discussed and decided by the servants of the three provinces, and the six Shangshu and others discussed and decided in Shangshu Province.

When Zhang Yunwen took Li Yu to visit Li Shimin, he saw Li Shimin lying on the bed with a sweat towel on his head, with a thick look of exhaustion on his face.

Hearing the human voice, Li Shimin opened his eyes and saw Zhang Yunwen and Li Yu standing in front of him, and showed a smile at the moment: "Yunwen, Runan, why are you here?" ”

Zhang Yunwen saluted and said with a smile: "The son-in-law heard that Your Majesty is sick, so I brought Runan to visit Your Majesty!" ”

Li Shimin waved his hand: "I'm not a serious illness, but I just contracted a cold, and I will be cured in a few days!" As he spoke, he glanced at Zhang Yunwen, "Yunwen, you came just in time, I just happened to have something to find you!" ”

Zhang Yunwen waved his hand: "Please give instructions to Your Majesty!" ”

Li Yu saw Li Shimin and Zhang Yunwen talking about business, and bowed to Li Shimin with interest, and withdrew from the hall with Li Shimin's smile.

"What does Your Majesty command?" Zhang Yunwen looked at Li Shimin on the bed and said.

"Well, there is a letter from the household department over there, you can take a look at it first, and I'll talk about it after reading it!" Li Shimin pointed to a few cases not far away and said.

Zhang Yunwen stepped forward to pick up the envelope, opened it, and saw that it was written about the tax issue of the Tang Dynasty. It turned out that since Li Shimin issued the pro-commercial order, business has developed rapidly, and by this year, the commercial tax has exceeded the agricultural tax for the first time, and the number of businessmen has increased significantly. However, the taxes brought about by this rapid growth of commerce were not proportionate to the growth of commerce. If business is rising at a rate of 20 percent a year, then business taxes are rising at a maximum rate of 5 percent. Therefore, Lang Zhong of the household department asked Li Shimin to increase taxes.

After Zhang Yunwen saw it, he couldn't help but ponder. Since Li Shimin promulgated the pro-commerce decree and the maritime trade order, Datang commerce has made great progress. The entire Datang has formed a commercial center centered on Laizhou, Shandong Province and radiating the entire Hebei Province, and a commercial area centered on Yangzhou and radiating the entire Jiangnan River. Both of these places relied on the benefits of maritime trade to attract a large number of people, goods and money. And Luoyang lives in the middle of the world, with the convenience of the canal, the waterway radiates the world, the north and Youyan south to Yangzhou, the west to Chang'an, and the east can go straight to the sea. Luoyang is the center, and the radiation area even includes Chang'an. In addition, there is a commercial area centered on Yizhou and an area centered on Guangzhou. Yizhou has been rich since ancient times, and it has rarely been affected by the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and even the attack of Tubo is very little. Guangzhou, on the other hand, was responsible for supplying and transshipment supplies for the entire Tang Nanyang fleet, which also attracted many merchants from the Central Plains and Jiangnan to Lingnan to do business in Guangzhou.

These five major commercial areas cover almost half of the Tang Dynasty, and the Silk Road in the Western Regions is gradually smooth, and goods from the Western Regions flow into Chang'an, so the commercial prosperity of Chang'an is not under the commercial towns.

However, if you take a closer look at this businessman, you will find that this Datang business is also under the control of the family. Laizhou has the Lu family, the Cui family, the Kong family and other large and small families, and Yangzhou also has Dugu, Yuwen, Zhou family and other families. The number of merchants in these families accounts for one-third of the merchants in Datang, but the amount of property they control is more than two-thirds.

In order to maximize their profits, many families often collude to suppress ordinary merchants. As for those who conceal their business and pay less or conceal commercial taxes, there are too many to mention. This is the direct cause of underpayment of business tax. In addition, this tax system, which is centered on the rent adjustment system, also has an impact on commercial tax.

Throughout the early Tang Dynasty, taxation was based on the small-scale peasant economy. This rent-based modulation is a good example of this small-scale peasant economy. Each ding pays two stones per year, which is called rent; Pay two zhang of silk, three taels of cotton or two zhang of cloth five feet, three catties of hemp, called tune. If the state does not need his service, he can pay the full amount of 20 days according to the standard of paying three feet of silk or three feet seven inches and five cents of cloth per day. If the state requires him to serve, he shall be exempted from transfer if he has served for an additional 15 days, and for an additional 30 days, he shall be exempted from rent. In the event of a serious natural disaster such as floods and droughts, more than four-tenths of the crop loss will be exempted from rent, more than six-tenths of the loss will be exempted, and more than seven-tenths of the loss will be exempted.

It can be seen that the things paid for rent, whether it is rice millet or cloth, are all in kind. The most important medium of circulation for the development of commerce is money. In other words, the tax system based on the small peasants imprisoned the development of commerce, and the rapid development of commerce also affected this tax system.

Fundamentally, it was Li Shimin's lack of attention to commerce, and the tax system based on the uniform land system constrained the growth of commercial tax.

Zhang Yunwen rubbed his head, this matter is not easy to do! Looking at Li Shimin's appearance, it is clear that he wants to help him come up with ideas to solve this commercial tax problem. But the problem is that if Zhang Yunwen just said this problem, it would definitely make Li Shimin change his color.

If you want to increase the business tax, you must either suppress the families and make them pay the full amount of taxes, or completely change the tax system. If you can think of it with your toes, Li Shimin will definitely choose the former.

Therefore, Zhang Yunwen will not say the latter idea at all.

"How? Yunwen, after seeing this letter, what do you think? Li Shimin sat on the couch under the service of the palace maid next to him, looked at Zhang Yunwen and frowned slightly, and said with a smile.

Zhang Yunwen heard Li Shimin's voice, put down the music in his hand, and walked in front of Li Shimin.

Li Shimin pointed to a stool next to him, and Zhang Yunwen sat on the stool.

"Your Majesty, according to Weichen, if you want to increase the commercial tax at this time, there are two measures!" Zhang Yunwen said unhurriedly.

Li Shimin's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "I know that Yunwen is resourceful, and sure enough, I would like to hear about it!" ”

"The family owns most of its wealth, but it pays less commercial tax than the rest of the merchants. Therefore, Wechen's first suggestion is to vigorously rectify the collection of commercial tax. First of all, for those who are engaged in business, they need to go to the local government to apply for a business certificate. If there is no one to handle it, it is not allowed to operate, otherwise it will be punished as a crime. When taxes are levied, they are levied according to the turnover of each company. Those who make more profits pay more taxes, and those who make less profits pay less taxes. Those who delay in paying taxes, conceal profits, or operate without permission shall be punished as guilty and fined ten times. Zhang Yunwen said slowly.

As soon as he heard this opinion, Li Shimin couldn't help but groan for a while, and said: "Yunwen, above the local level, the family is quite influential in the government. I estimate that this business certificate will not be difficult for the family, but it will be difficult for ordinary businessmen! In addition, once this business certificate is issued, does it mean that these businessmen and their juniors have to engage in business and cannot find other jobs? ”

Zhang Yunwen shook his head: "This business certificate is to count the business population and facilitate management, and secondly, to facilitate the collection of taxes." The descendants of businessmen, except for the non-farming, can do the rest! If the merchant does not want to engage in business, he needs to return the business certificate to the local government and cancel the certificate! ”

Li Shimin nodded, and then asked, "Since you allow your juniors to engage in any profession, why can't you only farm?" ”

Zhang Yunwen said with a smile: "Merchants have abundant financial resources, if they are allowed to get involved in farming, with their financial resources, it is easy to buy land and land, and in this way, won't it intensify land annexation?" Your Majesty, don't forget that the population of Datang can grow much faster than the development of land! ”

Li Shimin nodded: "Yunwen is very worried!" Uh, what about a measure? ”

Zhang Yunwen said solemnly: "New taxes. For example, a maritime trade tax is set up, and when a maritime trade fleet goes to sea to do business, it must be taxed proportionally according to the value of the goods. The same is true for goods coming in from abroad! ”

Li Shimin couldn't help frowning and said, "In this way, won't the price of those goods go up?" This tax is not finally passed on to the people! ”

Zhang Yunwen said with a smile: "The things shipped out of abroad, even if the price is increased, are purchased by the people of other countries, and what they want is their money." And those goods that are transported into the Tang Dynasty are mostly valuables, and the people rarely can afford to buy them, and most of them are purchased by nobles and merchants. Of course, those goods that maintain the livelihood of the people and the needs of the country need to be priced at a fixed price, so that they cannot increase the price at will! ”

Li Shimin listened, was silent for a long time, and still said: "This matter is still a little inappropriate!" Forget it, I'll leave this matter to the auxiliary machine and they will discuss it and see if there are any countermeasures! ”

Zhang Yunwen saw that Li Shimin had made up his mind, and he stopped speaking at the moment.

At this time, Li Shimin coughed twice, and lay on the bed again with the support of the palace maid.

Seeing this, Zhang Yunwen immediately bowed to Li Shimin and left.