The crown prince Zhan Shi and Li Gang, a scholar of Dongge University, were dissatisfied with the emperor's pride, thinking that the emperor was depriving and extorting businessmen in disguise, and that this trend could not be opened, let alone long.

"How can this be blackmail, businessmen compete for the sponsor's qualifications, although it is true that they take money in exchange for the name of the sponsor, but their efforts are not in vain, their gains are very significant, businessmen say profit, no profit can not be early. Which of these sponsors is not a famous business group or a big business house in the world, they will do business at a loss, and they are still competing to do it? The imperial court did not force them to become sponsors, they paid to be sponsors, and the benefits they received were very high. ”

Li Gang said that the emperor should not be profitable, and he could not be the same as a businessman.

Luo Cheng smiled and looked at Cui Junsu.

"Cui Xiang, tell Scholar Li for me, can the imperial court talk about money without talking about profit?"

"Saints, ordinary people, the seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, which are inseparable from money, as for the place where the court uses money, there are even more. Last year, the income of the imperial court's two taxes was more than 25 million stones, cloth and cotton were more than 25 million yuan, and the money was more than 4 million yuan. ”

"In addition, the industrial and commercial tax, the monopoly tax, the customs duty of the city and the imperial court, as well as the income from the imperial court's purchase and sale and tributary trade with the vassal state, totaled about 50 million yuan."

Cui Junsu is the chief steward of the imperial court, and the figures he said are naturally not wrong, of course, these numbers are actually public, and the recital of the court played by the Ministry of Civil Affairs is not confidential.

"Is this enough money to spend?" The emperor asked.

Judging from these figures, the income of the imperial court is very high, as the income of the two taxes of the regular tax, the rent in kind of corn and silk cloth collected is not high, if it is adjusted according to the rent of the Sui period, one ding pays two stone rents a year, and 25 million stone millet is only a rent of 12 million dings. When Sui was strong, there were nearly 9 million households, even if it was calculated at two dings per household, it was nearly 20 million dings, and two stones per person was an annual rental income of 40 million stones.

In fact, although it is necessary to deduct the non-tax households and non-tax enterprises, the difference is also huge, which is why there can be so many grain reserves in the Sui Dynasty.

Of course, in the Sui period, there was no industrial and commercial tax, monopoly tax, market tax, etc., and there would be no buying and trading.

The Great Qin court attaches great importance to industry and commerce, and has established a very good tax system for this piece of taxation, the tax is very high, the salt tax in the previous year was nearly 30 million guan, and now although the salt tax court has taken the initiative to reduce it by more than half, there are still more than 10 million guan salt tax a year, plus the increased taxes on tea, wine, and mines, so that the imperial court's monopoly tax can reach nearly 30 million guan a year.

In addition to the industrial and commercial taxes and market customs duties of more than 10 million, and then the imperial court-led peace and buying, trade, etc., the annual income of these money is about 50 million yuan.

It's amazing.

"Sage, the court has a lot of income, but the expenses are also large. More than 25 million stones of millet in the two taxes and three million were converted into silk cloth and added to the treasury of Liujing. Three million recharged rice beans were supplied to Shangshi and the official kitchens of the divisions, and were incorporated into the Beijing warehouse. Four million recharged rice was transferred to Beijing to fill the grain of the officials and the divisions. Five million were retained as state officials and grain. 10 million Zhudao garrison grain and storage warehouse. ”

"And the cloth and silk are more than 27 million horses, 10 million into Luoyang, 5 million into the rest of the five capitals, and the remaining 12 million soldiers from all provinces will be given peace, and the border counties will be charged with official materials and post posts."

"More than 55 million guan of money, of which 12 million guan is used to repay national bonds, 2 million guan is used for Zhudao County officials' materials and post horses, and 6 million is used to replenish Zhudao County's peace and military rations."

"Another 30 million guan will be used for the military expenditure of the soldiers and horses of the three ya."

Li Gang said, "Then the imperial court still has five million yuan a year?" ”

"Five million guan, it seems to be a lot, and there are a lot of places to use money, which is the reserve money reserved by the imperial court, in case of war, floods and droughts, etc., there are many places where money is needed. In addition, building roads, embankments, and cities were lined up to wait for the imperial court to approve the money. ”

According to Cui Junsu, not to mention 50 million yuan, even if there is more money, it is not enough, and now the imperial court is stuck in use, living within its means.

According to the previous year's fiscal revenue, then formulate the next year's fiscal budget, and set aside a little money for reserve. Therefore, how to make this budget and where to pull the money is also the focus of disputes between the government and the court every year.

No matter how hard they fight, in the end, they will not be able to satisfy all parties, so they can only be roughly balanced, with some budget cuts and some project requests rejected by all sides.

Li Gang was a little puzzled, why the Sui Dynasty only collected rents in kind, and did not have a huge amount of income from industrial and commercial trade, but it was also stable, and even had the prosperity of the emperor, but now the imperial court has so much income, but it is still stretched everywhere.

"In the Sui period, everyone in the people had to serve 20 days of free service, and if they did not finish the service, they had to fold three feet of silk on behalf of Yong. In the Sui period, the rent was levied by Ding, no matter how much land there was or not, as long as it was a class, it was the same rent, one ding and two stone millet rent or two zhang and three feet of silk a year. ”

"And my dynasty, since the reform of the two tax laws, households are divided into nine grades, the rich and poor pay household tax according to the difference, and the land tax is levied according to the mu, and the original Sui Dynasty of various miscellaneous donations and even even the service is also apportioned into the mu, according to the mu of land tax, in this way, more land, less land, less tax, no land, we also the original Yicang Grain Society warehouse grain is also incorporated into the land tax per mu, in fact, the rent grain per mu is much less than in the past."

Of course, the biggest difference between the two taxes and the rent regulation is that this tax rate is relatively flexible and reasonable, the poor pay less tax, and the rich pay more tax, and the biggest feature of the Sui Dynasty's tax is actually a disguised tax on people, which is collected according to Ding, and the rich pay the same tax as the poor.

Therefore, the Sui Dynasty was the most strict control over the census of the population and household registration, and after the Sui Dynasty unified the world, the population of the whole country almost tripled in a short period of time, in fact, all the hidden households in the world were searched out.

Although this method of taxing taxes according to the number of taxes is simple to levie, and there are as many taxes as there are dings, in fact it is very unreasonable, and the poor people pay the same taxes as those billionaires, and even a large number of officials and so on become non-taxable households, but do not pay half of the tax.

Why did Sui die?

One of the big reasons is that according to the tax system of the Sui Dynasty, if it is a peaceful age, everyone can barely get by after paying the rent adjustment. But once there is a disaster, or encounters a large amount of labor, then the already difficult ordinary people may go bankrupt, and the tax system of the Sui Dynasty, once such a situation occurs, it is often a large area of general bankruptcy of the people, and a large number of people are desperate, so they can only rebel.

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