Excise taxes on luxury goods are usually very high, and in some countries in later generations, the rate is even 150 percent of the total value of the goods.

Even if Da Song doesn't start so ruthlessly, only 50% will be levied. Then, as Su Song said, if a gemstone is sold for 1,000 guan, it will be taxed 500 guan; If it is sold for 10,000 guan, it will be taxed for 5,000 kan.

Five hundred and five thousand are far apart.

Luxury goods, on the other hand, are often the most difficult to price, which does make it very difficult to collect taxes.

But this difficulty is nothing compared to the benefits it brings!

The wealthy officials and gentry of the Great Song Dynasty have always advocated luxury in their lives, such as Lu Mengzheng, the prime minister of the Taizong Dynasty, who likes to eat chicken tongue soup and has to come to a bowl every night.

Once, when he was walking in his backyard, he suddenly noticed that there was a small hill in his home, so he asked his subordinates curiously, "Why is there an extra hill in my house?" ”

The servant replied, "Master, the leftover chicken bones you eat every day are buried with soil, and over time this small hill has been formed." ”

Lu Mengzheng reprimanded: "Nonsense, when did I eat so much chicken? ”

The servant explained: "Master, you like to eat chicken tongue soup, this bowl of soup costs thirty chicken tongues, and you have to kill thirty chickens that day, and in two years, there are more than 20,000 chickens. ”

There is no official historical record of this matter, and I do not debate its authenticity, but this incident reflects from one side how luxurious the life of the gentry and wealthy families of the Great Song Dynasty was. It can be said that examples like Lü Mengzheng abound.

The trading of pearls and gems in the Boundary Body Alley is often tens of millions every day; In Fengle Building, there are general silver plates and ivory chopsticks, porcelain bowls and bamboo chopsticks can not be seen at all, and it is common for a dish to be thousands of times; There are nearly 100 restaurants close to the grade of Fengle Lou in Tokyo City alone, and the business of each one is very prosperous; In Hejiashu in Houshi Street, Hangzhou, a small dim sum sells for 500 yuan, these are all facts; Sold so expensive, business is still so prosperous, it can be seen how the gentry and wealthy families of the Great Song Dynasty lived, this phenomenon was not in the feudal era, before the Great Song Dynasty, and not after the Great Song Dynasty.

The inequality between the rich and the poor in the Great Song Dynasty was also the most disparity in all dynasties, and a large amount of social wealth was concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, making the market unprecedentedly prosperous, while the vast countryside was very withered.

Therefore, the Song Dynasty also had the most peasant uprisings, even surpassing the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which entered the Central Plains as a foreigner.

Based on these reasons, Yang Yi personally feels that no matter how difficult it is, it is necessary to levy a luxury consumption tax in the Great Song Dynasty to regulate this trend of luxury and waste.

Yang Yi roughly listed these phenomena, and the deacons sitting there stopped talking, and Yang Yi continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, even if the imperial court only lists the ten most expensive goods as luxury goods and levies a tax of fifty percent, it can bring at least tens of millions of yuan of income to the imperial court every year.

With this money, the imperial court could have lowered the agricultural tax a little more, from the current 20 taxes to 25 taxes and 1, or even 30 taxes and 1; So as to reduce the burden of the lower classes. Give the people more surplus, so that they have more self-protection ability in disaster years, the imperial court can reduce the relief, but also prevent the people from being forced by life to fall into the grass, or even rise up; Another point is that if the people have money, they can develop production, and at the same time, their consumption capacity will also increase, which will further promote the prosperity of the market and increase the income of the imperial court.

The above is a benefit to the poor.

For the wealthy, the imposition of a consumption tax on luxury goods can guide their consumption concepts, so that they can spend less money on these luxury goods and spend more money on business and entrepreneurship, thereby driving the healthy and vigorous development of the whole society.

As for the question just raised by Su Xianggong, this official believes that there is no need to worry too much, although luxury goods are relatively difficult to price, there is always a market law; And Su Xianggong just now mainly considered the problem from the perspective of the merchants, in fact, how much tax is levied by the imperial court will not have much impact on the merchants, and the merchants will naturally pass on the tax amount to the buyers; In the end, it will be those who spend money on luxury goods. This is exactly what we need to do, in this way to adjust the gap between the rich and the poor, and avoid the continuous deterioration of social contradictions. ”

Zhang Dian stroked his long beard, which was already a little gray and full of the vicissitudes of time, and he said in a deep voice: "If the excise tax on luxury goods is imposed, the price of items such as pearls and gemstones will rise, which will inevitably lead to rampant smuggling, and this matter must be guarded against." ”

As soon as he heard this, Yang Yidun knew that there was a door, and he replied with a smile: "What Zhang Xianggong said is true, so it is necessary to increase border patrols, in addition, most of the luxury goods imported from abroad have to pay taxes when they pass through the customs, and the tax collection department will issue a tax bill. ”

Li Qingchen continued: "I am afraid that this tax will be resisted by many officials. ”

Li Qingchen's remarks need to be brief, but they also get to the point, because the officials of the Great Song Dynasty are one of the most important consumer groups of luxury goods, and they naturally do not want to see the price of luxury goods rise.

Cai Jing immediately replied: "Li Xianggong, at the beginning, the taxes were unified, the mu was collected, and the officials and gentry paid the grain together, wouldn't the resistance be greater? How about now? As long as the imperial court is determined to carry it out, will they dare to rebel because of this? At most, they choose not to buy it; Since ancient times, it is impossible to ensure that every policy is implemented from top to bottom, and it is inevitable that some localities and some officials will take advantage of the loopholes in the policy to oppose it, or seek profit and sabotage it; But as long as the overall benefits of this policy outweigh the disadvantages, it is a good policy; For example, when the imperial court provides disaster relief, and the funds are allocated, there will always be some officials who want to profit from it, and even persecute the people for this reason, and stir up turmoil to cover up their crimes.

Since it is a good policy, what we have to consider is not whether to implement it, but how to implement it, how to crack down on those officials who maliciously resist sabotage, so as to ensure that the policy benefits the country and the people to the greatest extent; In addition, the official believes that after all, the goods that can be included in the luxury goods are a minority, and the kind of goods that are included in the luxury goods for taxation must be adjusted every year according to the actual situation; For example, if you include Japanese folding screens in the luxury tax, the price of folding screens will rise, and wealthy people will probably choose to paint gold folding fans and so on. If it is not adjusted according to the actual situation, this tax will not be effective. ”

The Ministry of Industry Shangzhang Chaozong also said: "Some goods are taxed in which link, which must also be considered in detail, such as jade, most of the imported jade is the original stone, the price of the original stone is relatively cheap, but after the carving of the craftsman, the value may increase tenfold, or even hundreds of times, if it is only taxed in the link of importing the original stone, then it will not play much role." ”

The discussion in the political hall became more and more heated, but Yang Yi smiled, listening to these discussions, it was obvious that the benefits of imposing a luxury excise tax on the benefits he listed had moved these high-ranking officials.

It is not surprising that this tax is indeed very beneficial to the country and the people, and later countries have introduced luxury consumption tax, which is enough to show that this tax is positive and has positive significance for the society.

The rich families of the Great Song Dynasty lived too luxuriously, and extravagant consumption should be controlled within an appropriate range, both for individuals and for society.

For individuals, excessive extravagance can lead to poverty, bankruptcy, and the desperation of family members, especially children and the elderly who have lost the ability to work, and become a factor of social instability.

From the perspective of society as a whole, excessive luxury is excessive waste, which will lead to the widespread and rapid depletion of resources; What's more, the huge disparities in income and wealth distribution make luxury consumption a discriminatory behavior.

The rich use this conspicuous consumption to show their noble status and special status will make the poor feel great psychological pressure to fail; Like Du Fu, he sighed, "Zhumen's wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road." "It's still good to be melancholy, and more people will have feelings of inferiority, depression, jealousy, hatred, and resentment; As a result, the poor are not only materially poor, but also spiritually miserable.

Once this contrast reaches a certain level, it can lead to theft, robbery, murder, and even large-scale unrest, leaving society in a state of instability.

Out of the political hall, Yang Yi couldn't help but look up at the sky, the sky was really blue, blue and blue, and the clouds that drifted by were so light, as light as his mood at the moment.

Since returning to Beijing, for nearly a month, he has been arguing, persuading, and answering questions with the courtiers every day; Running around various departments every day, staying up until the third watch at night, you see that he can easily convince those rulers in the political hall, that is because he speaks with actual data everywhere; Those data are very simple to say, but it is definitely not a simple matter to find out from the mountains of documents in various departments, sort them out and integrate them, not only Yang Yi is staying up late at home, but also Xiao Yi, the staff, plus Qing Niang and Qin Cao, they have to help together to sort out these data.

Now that the budget system has been passed, this will make the financial expenditure of the Great Song Dynasty more rational, from disorderly to orderly, so that the money from the treasury can be invested in the most needed places to the greatest extent.

The passage of the luxury consumption tax is of great significance to narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor in the Great Song Dynasty, reducing the burden of the poor people, and promoting social stability. Perhaps, in the future, the Great Song Dynasty can have fewer families forced to sell their children and daughters, fewer people starve to death, fewer robbers, fewer criminals, and less turmoil.

As for the problem of money shortage, for now, he doesn't need to worry too much, the most important thing to worry about is Cai Jing, in fact, the household department has been collecting the previous indiscriminate Jiaozi from the people since last month.

A few days ago, the consistent copper coins on the market can be exchanged for five guan jiaozi, and the household department would rather suffer some losses and exchange the consistent copper coins for four guanzi.

This is to wipe the ass of the previous court mistakes, one is to quickly recover these Jiaozi that are still circulating in the market, and the other is to hint to the people that the court is rich, and will make the greatest determination to stabilize the reputation of Jiaozi.

The previous Jiaozi had a circulation period, and they were invalid when they expired, so it can be easily calculated according to the previous circulation, and the Jiaozi that are still in circulation in the market are about 15 million yuan, and the imperial court has recovered all these Jiaozi, and it actually only costs three or four million taels of silver.

This is just a fraction of what Yang Yi got back from Japan. Cai Jing smashed the money down without blinking an eye.

The remaining 50 million taels will be used as reserves to ensure that the value of Xinjiaozi does not depreciate.

The Great Song Dynasty has a history of seventy or eighty years, has accumulated rich experience, and all kinds of relevant laws and regulations are perfect.

It can be said that as long as there is no more indiscriminate distribution, Yang Yi basically has nothing to worry about.

He let out a long sigh and walked towards Yanchun Pavilion, he had the title of emperor on him, and now that his eldest son Zhao Jie was almost three years old, it was time to strengthen his education.

(To be continued)