On July 16, Li Zhi led the tax collectors to the house of a gentleman surnamed Cao in Jinghai County to collect land taxes. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

By mid-July, Li Zhi had already confiscated the Yellow Book of Enslavement and the Fish Scale Atlas of Tianjin's 1 prefecture, 2 prefectures, and 20 counties in the major yamen, clarifying the relationship between taxes and taxes in Tianjin. Relying on these documents and field investigations, Li Zhi was able to collect taxes from the gentry and peasants in Tianjin.

The tax system of the Ming Dynasty was very complex, and generally speaking, the field tax was divided into summer tax and autumn grain. Generally, the summer tax cannot be levied more than August, and the autumn grain cannot be collected more than February of the following year. In the early Ming Dynasty, the expropriation of land was mainly based on the collection of physical goods, as well as banknotes, money, gold, silver, silk and cloth. The payment with wheat and rice is called the natural color, and the exchange and payment of gold, silver, money, banknotes, cloth, silk and other items is called folding color. However, after the reform of a whip law in the Wanli Dynasty, Tian Fu was mainly based on folding, that is, handing over silver as a servitude. However, a whip law was not completely enforced, and some of the field taxes were still paid in the form of natural grain.

Although the central government of the Ming Dynasty set the standard of five liters and three liters per mu per year for official fields and three liters and three liters per mu per year for private fields, this standard is only a minimum taxation standard, and its formulation is not based on the developed agricultural areas, but on the basis of the level that the vast majority of areas can achieve. Therefore, the department can be changed under the principle of "thin endowment".

For areas with a more developed agricultural economy, due to their farming technology and labor productivity, the grain yield per mu can reach a high level, so when the actual collection is made, a rule higher than five liters per mu per year and three liters and three liters per mu per year will be formulated under the principle of "thin endowment".

Tianjin's taxation standard during the Wanli period was to levy four liters of Liuhe wheat per mu of land.

The actual level of taxes levied by each province varies due to the yield per mu and various historical reasons, but once the total amount of taxes levied by each province, state and county is determined, it is basically unchanged. Regardless of changes in population and the number of fields, each county is required to allocate the annual tax to the fields of the whole state.

Therefore, if there are more gentry in a state or county who do not pay taxes, all the taxes will be paid on the small people who pay the land taxes.

Li Zhi sorted out Tianjin's tax system this time and put one of his cousins, Xie Liangyou, in charge. Xie Liangyou is the grandson of Li Zhi's grandmother's sister and is a distant cousin. Xie Liangyou studied for a few years and originally worked as an accountant in a rice shop. He was familiar with Li Zhi when he was a child, and when he saw Li Zhi in the eighth year of Chongzhen, he took the initiative to join Li Zhi and worked as an accountant under Li Zhi. After six years of work, Xie Liangyou is already a senior official.

After several years of observation, Li Zhi found that although Xie Liangyou was not talented, he was quite principled and not greedy for money. This time, Li Zhi collected the land tax in Tianjin Town, and he needed a reliable person to preside over it, so Li Zhi pushed Xie Liangyou to the front desk and appointed him as the ambassador of the Shogunate Tax Agency.

In the past few months, Xie Liangyou has led hundreds of accountants hired by Li Zhi to fight hard in a series of tax documents, and finally figured out the tax situation in Tianjin.

Li Zhi rode on a horse and asked, "Liangyou, how many Tianfu are there in Tianjin in a year?" ”

Xie Liangyou suffered from chronic rhinitis that could not be cured, he sniffed, and immediately arched his hand and said: "Uncle, Tianjin has 18.51 million mu of dry land, most of which is private land, and only 63,000 mu is official land. According to the custom of the Wanli Dynasty, 855,000 stone wheat was to be levied in these fields. ”

"Of these field endowments, three-tenths of seven-fold were handed over in their true colors, with a total of 316,000 stone of wheat. Sixty into three is folded color to hand in, according to the discount of one stone of wheat into two taels of silver in previous years, a town in Tianjin to levy one hundred and seventy-seven thousand taels of gold and silver. ”

After the government of the Ming Dynasty levied taxes, the collected silver was uniformly melted and cast into special silver ingots, which were called Jinhua Yin. Of course, there is a loss in smelting silver. Therefore, when the government collects the land endowment silver, it also levies a sum of "fire consumption" silver. Corrupt officials and corrupt officials bully the small people with no background, and sometimes the fire consumption collected is even several percent of the regular tax.

Li Zhi now hires a tax accountant to collect taxes and silver, so naturally he will not hide dirt and dirt and allow this kind of corruption, which greatly reduces the burden on the small people.

Xie Liangyou said: "However, this Wanli Dynasty and this Dynasty have three additional salaries, namely Liao, Suppression and Lian. The most is Liaoyu, in the forty-sixth year of Wanli, plus three cents and five millimeters of silver per mu. In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, add another three centimeters and five millimeters per mu. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, add two centi. Chongzhen for three years, add another three centimeters per mu. A total of one and a half cents of silver per mu will be levied. ”

"In the tenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang set a ten-sided plan to suppress thieves, and the imperial court levied additional salaries, increased the field and gave 2.8 million taels of silver, and the fields in Tianjin were taxed by an additional five cents per mu. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang proposed to increase taxes and train soldiers, and increase the salary of one cent per mu. ”

"The sum of the three salaries will increase by two cents and seven cents of silver per mu, totaling 499,000 taels of silver."

"So taken together, a town in Tianjin paid a tax of 1,577,000 taels of color, and 316,000 stones."

Hearing the figure of 1.5 million tael-year, Li Zhi's eyes lit up. The field endowment of this town in Tianjin is really huge. If the operation is good, it can not only reduce the burden of the small people, but also generate income for themselves.

Li Zhi asked: "Liangyou, what percentage of these 18.51 million mu of land does not pay taxes, and how many percent do you pay taxes?" ”

Xie Liangyou sniffed and said, "Uncle, according to our statistics, according to the receipts of the fields over the years, forty percent of these fields are not taxed at all. There was no clan vassal king in the town of Tianjin, and these unendowed fields were mainly owned by famous gentry. Another 30 percent of the land is subject to normal taxes. The remaining thirty percent is a heavy endowment. ”

"About half of the small people planted thin fields and relied on carrying water for irrigation, but they were bullied by the officials and had to pay more than three buckets of land taxes, which was unspeakably miserable."

Li Zhi nodded and said: "Speaking of which, if we increase the total tax collected by 20%, and distribute the tax evenly to all fields, and let the tax evasion gentry pay taxes, we can not only reduce the burden of the small people, but also increase some income!" ”

Xie Liangyou calculated, arched his hand and said, "Uncle Shengming." The uncle divided the land evenly and gave all the fields, and the most exploited people benefited from it, and I am afraid that these poorest people will no longer suffer from hunger. ”

"And the uncle can levy taxes like this, and he can get an extra 315,000 taels of silver every year, and 63,000 stones of true color fields. This new field endowment does not need to be shipped, nor does it need to be kept in the prefecture, state, or county, and can be used cheaply by the uncle. ”

Hearing that his new tax system could make him earn so much silver, Li Zhi laughed and was very happy.