Of course, in the past few months, Yang Lin's focus has not been on these subtleties, and now more than ten functional departments have been established under the governor's yamen, such as the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Military Administration, the Department of Police, the Department of Experience, the Department of Finance, the Department of Etiquette, the Department of Public Works, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Education, and the specific affairs are immediately under the responsibility of these departments (offices).

Yang Lin is most concerned about food, taxes, bandits and other affairs.

At the beginning of the acting governorship, the price of rice in CD City was about four or five yuan per bucket, which was six or seven times more expensive than in the Taiping years, and in order to calm prices, Yang Lin transported a large amount of grain from northern Sichuan to stabilize prices.

Of course, the most economical mode of transportation is through Chongqing, along the Yangtze River, Minjiang River and other rivers upstream, but now there is often a grain shortage in southern Sichuan, even if there is a naval escort, there is also a matter of robbing grain and grass on the road.

In addition to the shock, the mode of transportation was changed, and the ships all docked in Suining and Yunxian, and then transported to the local area through official roads and post roads to calm prices.

Different from buying rice on the market, the purchase of official rice is tied to the household registration, and one bucket of official rice can be purchased every four or ten days, and each bucket is only one dollar and five cents of silver, which is much cheaper than the 5 and 6 yuan per bucket on the market.

In order to buy affordable official rice, everyone enthusiastically registered their household registration, and took the household registration book to each box to buy affordable official rice.

I thought that I would get everyone's applause for doing this, but who would have expected that it would provoke a series of protests from the rice industry, and the merchants could not afford to make a profit, everyone bought grain from afar, and originally wanted to take advantage of the famine to make a lot of money, who expected the government to intervene, everyone can imagine in their hearts.

Everyone most wanted to join forces to resist government intervention, but how could this be hidden from Yang Lin's eyes, at the beginning of the decision to intervene in food prices, he had expected that these businessmen might be wreckant.

The police of the Police Department quickly dispatched to arrest the two grain merchants who were jumping the most, claiming that they had colluded with foreign enemies to disrupt the price of grain in the market, confiscated their family property, and converted the grain in their warehouses into public grain and sold it at a flat price.

Although some people know that these grain merchants just want to hoard goods, everyone suffers from the pain of grain merchants hoarding goods, and they are quite supportive of the government's actions, and it is difficult to stir up any waves.

Seeing nearly 100 horse-drawn carts dragging grain into the provincial capital every day, I thought that the solution to the grain shortage would be successful, but what is strange is that the price of grain in the market is mostly four yuan of silver per bucket, which is slightly lower than before the regulation.

On this morning, everyone was convened to discuss, and Qian Bangxin proposed a solution, that is, to ban winemaking.

This is the most favorite method adopted by ancient officials, whenever there is a shortage of food, when there is a shortage of food, the brewing of wine is completely banned, the consumption of food in the society is reduced, and finally the goal of solving the food shortage is achieved.

Military generals love to drink, civil officials love to drink tea, and when they heard the ban on brewing, the generals couldn't stand it one by one, so they took Bu Ning and Yao Chonglie to say that they practiced martial arts every day, went into battle many times to kill the enemy, and there were injuries everywhere on their bodies, and they couldn't stand it at all if they didn't drink.

And Qian Bangqi and others put out historical allusions, every time there is a food shortage, they strictly enforce the ban on alcohol, and now they have suffered such a catastrophe, the boats of the governor Yamen transporting grain come and go to the river, and the tricycle and carriage fill the post road official road every day, but there are more monks and less porridge, and there is still a food shortage in the plain, and the main reason is that many rich households hoard grain and make money by making wine.

Many generals quit, everyone led troops to fight, mainly by drinking to strengthen the cold, and now that alcohol is banned, isn't that to everyone's death?

Yang Lin's eyes lit up, and the tobacco and alcohol tax, as if in the nineties of the 20th century, the tobacco and alcohol tax exceeded 2 percent of the national tax, and it was the main source of government finance.

Compared with ordinary peasant children, this wine was barely considered a luxury in ancient times, and the wealthy families drank all day long, while the common people did not drink too much except for red and white ceremonies.

In that case, why not launch the wine fu?

In parallel historical times, France introduced a liquor tax in order to solve its fiscal problems, and in ancient times it imposed a tax on liquor as it did in modern luxury taxes.

I thought that everyone would agree in unison, but I didn't expect everyone to shake their heads and ask the reason, it turns out that the liquor tax has been there since ancient times.

During the Warring States Period, when Shang Ying changed the law in the Qin State, he advocated that "the price of wine and meat should be heavier, and the rent should be ten times more simple" (Shang Junshu • Reclamation Order) to limit the consumption of wine, prevent ministers and people from indulging in wine, and affect the governance of the country and the development of agricultural production. It can be seen that at that time, the Qin State not only imposed a tax on wine, but also the tax amount was extremely high, which was 10 times the actual cost of wine.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the state changed its policy of taxing liquor. In the third year of the Tianhan Dynasty (98 B.C.), under the auspices of Sang Hongyang, it was decided to "build wine to support the border" ("Salt and Iron Treatise • Worrying Border"), that is, to implement the monopoly of wine, and use the monopoly income to supply the frontier military expenses.

Since then, the production and sale of liquor have been controlled by the government, and official brewing and official sales have been implemented, and private brewing and operation are not allowed.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wei and Shu banned winemaking, while Wu implemented a monopoly on wine.

The Western Jin Dynasty and the Eastern Jin Dynasty imposed a tax on liquor, and sometimes banned it due to disasters.

At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, the liquor monopoly was also implemented, and in the third year of Emperor Wen's reign (583 AD), the liquor monopoly was abolished and the liquor was no longer taxed.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was no liquor tax. In the third year of Jianzhong (782 AD), in order to raise military expenses, the government bought wine shops and sold them, and collected 3,000 money per Hu; Folk brewing is prohibited.

The Northern Song Dynasty still practiced the "Yongjiu" method for wine, Shenzong Xining ten years (1077 AD), the Northern Song Dynasty set up more than 1,800 liquor services in the country, Tokyo annual liquor income of more than 400,000 guan, Qinzhou, Hangzhou more than 300,000 guan, this year all the liquor class about 1,360 yuan, selling koji money about 100 yuan, higher than the same period of commercial tax income.

In the fourth year of Gaozong's Jianyan (1130 AD), on the grounds of the high price of rice koji, it was stipulated that the premium wine would increase by 20 wen per liter and the inferior wine would increase by 18 wen per liter.

The liquor tax in the Ming Dynasty was divided into koji tax and sales tax. In the second year of Hongwu (1369 AD), Taizu of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the people made wine for their own consumption and were not taxed.

In the seventh year of Yingzong's orthodoxy (1442 AD), it was stipulated that the liquor tax in various places was collected and stored in the prefecture and county for its own use, and the liquor tax became a local tax.

However, although the imperial court has regulations, it actually collects very little, such as the liquor tax levied in Jiangnan during the Chongzhen period, the official is Lunli, one pound per wine, one penny, the trough workshop is changed to an official store, and the builder is punished according to the law of private salt.

Even so, the liquor tax collected in various places is still very small, and the main reason is that the Ming Dynasty has the idea of small people from top to bottom and the ideology of slacking off government from top to bottom.

For example, during the Hongwu period, the relevant tax officials in Shanxi completed the tax collection work ahead of schedule and asked the imperial court for a reward, but Zhu Yuanzhang instead thought that he was a fish and a common man, and cut him to the people, which greatly damaged the enthusiasm of the tax collectors in various places, and in the end, the tax officials were proud of not collecting taxes and collecting less taxes.

But now it is different, not only is the township office centered on the bazaar to ensure the collection of taxes, but as a traveler, it is better to understand the real source of tax revenue.

After that, a liquor tax was enacted, and during the grain shortage, the liquor tax was more than doubled during the Taiping period.

The production and retail of salt is not easy to control, but the distribution and wholesale alleviation is easy to control, so the salt is subject to a filing system in the production and retail sector, and a franchise system is implemented in the wholesaler sector.

Wine is different, the production link is very easy to control (especially for large workshops), and it is not easy to control in the retail link, so the way to change, that is, the production link implements the franchise system, and the distribution and retail implement the filing system.

According to the Northern Song Dynasty model, 10 copper coins per liter of high-grade wine (2 catties, generally 500 ml a catty), 8 copper coins for medium wine, and 5 copper coins for low-grade wine, which were levied on the workshop.

In order to reduce food consumption during the famine season, the proportion of liquor tax can be increased, such as 20 copper coins per liter for fine wine, 15 copper coins for medium wine, and 10 copper coins for inferior wine.

All breweries are franchised, the containers are labeled, and a surcharge is charged to the distributors during the sales process, which is then paid to the government.

The new liquor tax clearly smacks of a luxury tax, or tries to take care of the general public, and even in times of famine the liquor tax is not much different from the old peacetime season, and the general public is not much affected.

And those who like to drink fine wine, even if they have a little more silver, but they are already rich, and it is not a big deal to have more silver.

The wine tax is different from the salt tax, in ancient times, salt was eaten every day regardless of wealth, wealth and poverty, and if you don't eat it, you will have a weak waist and legs, and you will not be able to do farm work at all.

Wine is different, although everyone drinks it, but the poor families drink less, while the wealthy families not only drink the best wine, but also drink very much.

Just as the liquor tax in the Song Dynasty amounted to millions of taels of silver a year, the population of the Ming Dynasty was twice that of the Song Dynasty, and if it was levied according to the same standard, it would only be more. (Ordinary people have 10 catties of wine per year for a family of four, that is, 5 liters, and the wine tax is 25 copper coins)

The Ming Dynasty has always been light and thin, once the liquor tax was introduced, although some people said irresponsible things, but the vast majority of them are still very acceptable, after all, in ancient times, alcohol was often banned (Lu Bu guarded Pi to ban alcohol, and the generals were punished for making wine privately, and finally surrendered to Cao Cao), and now the four (Sichuan) large-scale grain shortage government just levies a little more wine tax, and there is no ban on alcohol, which makes many people grateful.

But then everyone felt that there was a change, and the breweries in each township were graded, and the liquor stores and grocery stores were managed by establishing entry and exit details like table salt, and it was even more difficult for everyone to evade the collection of liquor taxes as in the past. (In ancient times, the county level was self-governing, and the Great Song Dynasty liquor tax was collected at the county level at most).

After the franchise of liquor, the price of liquor in the market rose by 20%, which slightly suppressed the drinking of ordinary people.

Seeing that the grain consumed by brewing has decreased sharply, there are no other good sales channels for everyone's grain, and grain merchants have lowered the price of grain.

After a month of hard work, the price of grain was slowly reduced from 5 yuan per bucket to 1 yuan and 4 cents, and the food shortage in the city was slightly reduced.