The annual budget will always cause violent disputes between the civilian and military sessions, and after the two sessions of the civil and military affairs are copied, then the various departments of the cabinet will quarrel again over how to allocate the funds of each department, and although the military side is better, the disputes between sea and land are also relatively serious, and even within the army there are many disputes, some people want to buy more weapons, some people want to improve the treatment of military personnel, some people want to conduct more exercises, and some people want to increase military input in the Outer Khing'an Mountains and the northwest region.

In short, at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the military and political leaders of the entire empire always quarrel over the issue of budget funds.

Whenever this happens, Lin Zhe feels quite a headache.

From Lin Zhe's point of view, the allocation of the budget basically needs to be maintained at an approximate proportion, for example, in 1862 the proportion of military expenditure was maintained at 35 percent, which was two percentage points lower than the proportion of 37 percent in 1861.

However, although the proportion was reduced, the total amount of military spending still increased slightly, because the agricultural production and industrial economy in the empire gradually recovered and achieved greater development, so that the tax revenue maintained a high level of steady growth.

The budget revenue for 1862 was about 300 million yen, 30 million more than the revenue of 1861, and the share of the increase came mainly from industry and commerce.

However, after a large recovery of growth in the previous few years, traditional taxes such as agricultural taxes and salt tea have maintained a relatively stable amount, and if there are no big variables in the future, the growth of traditional taxes such as agricultural taxes will be relatively limited.

Since 1861, the economic growth of the empire has begun since the development of industry. If industry does not develop, it will be difficult for the empire's economy to grow substantially. It will also be difficult to increase the associated taxes.

After the saturation of the traditional primary industry, the empire wanted to continue to develop its economy. If you collect more taxes, you can only start from the business side.

According to the Ministry of Finance, after 1863, the tax revenue of the Imperial industry and commerce would increase substantially.

This is not to say that there will be explosive growth in the empire's industry and commerce this year and next, but because the preferential tax period for companies in many industries is about to expire.

From the very beginning, in order to promote the development of industry and commerce, the empire encouraged capital to invest in industry, and implemented a large number of preferential policies, the most important of which was tax incentives.

Generally, enterprises will have tax incentives for the first two years of tax exemption and the second three and a half years of tax exemption. This means that many businesses established after 1858 will end their preferential tax period in 1863 and begin to pay taxes at the normal rate.

Although the industry and commerce of the empire had begun to develop strictly since the establishment of the Shanghai Trade Zone in 1854, the real large-scale development, especially the large-scale entry of private capital into industry and commerce, was after 1858.

At that time, the empire agreed to the Anglo-French alliance, and the Northern Expedition to the Manchus won a strategic victory, and the military victory of the empire also led to a greater guarantee of security in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially in Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu. In addition, at that time, the empire began to vigorously promote the cotton spinning industry, and a large number of cotton spinning factories were established after 1858.

These enterprises would provide a large amount of industrial tax revenue for the empire after 1863, so that the empire's financial revenue could usher in a leap forward.

Despite the fact that the fiscal revenue of 1862 was only three hundred million. This is only 30 million more than the 270 million in 1861, but the Ministry of Finance estimates that the budget revenue for 1863 is 350 million, and in 1865 it is expected to be 400 million.

If the estimate of the Ministry of Finance is correct. Then in the next two or three years, the empire's fiscal revenue will get an explosive increase.

The increase in fiscal revenue also means that the imperial government has more funds to invest in industrial development and education. water conservancy and other undertakings, and further promote the development of the empire's industry, commerce, and agriculture.

However, it does not matter whether the fiscal revenue is 200 million in the past, 300 million now, or 400 million in the future. But the attitude of the various departments of the empire towards competition will not change.

At the 1862 Imperial Cabinet Budget Meeting, the cabinet leaders were arguing as usual. However, after arguing and arguing, they also compromised and reached an agreement.

At this cabinet budget meeting, the Ministry of Education, which is under the control of Jiang Daoquan, has undoubtedly once again become the big winner, spending at least 40 percent more on education than last year.

Although the total amount of education expenditure is still not comparable with financial and industrial expenditure, it still exceeds other expenditures.

Jiang Daoquan, who had received more education funds, returned to his Ministry of Education office building with satisfaction, and then asked his various institutions and departments to start arranging the education development plan for the new year, and put forward a plan to improve local education across the country without multiple levels.

In the past many years, although the empire has begun to comprehensively promote the new education system, in fact, this promotion is not uniform, because the establishment of schools costs money, which is nothing for some economically developed regions, such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places.

However, for some economically backward areas, the cost of building a new school is relatively large, and it is not expensive to run a primary school, but it can be more than a thousand, and more than thousands or even tens of thousands.

However, the funds for the start-up of these schools come from the central government, that is, the funds directly drawn from the Ministry of Education are actually quite limited, and the majority of them have to be solved by the local finances themselves.

For some remote provinces, the annual local fiscal revenue of a county is only tens of thousands of yuan, and even the local fiscal revenue of some poor places cannot exceed 10,000 yuan.

With such a small amount of money, the local government has to spend it in all aspects, and it is very difficult to set up a new school with thousands of yuan at once, even if it is the lowest elementary novel.

Therefore, since the implementation of the new education system for several years, some provinces with relatively good economic conditions have basically completed the opening and promotion of new schools. Some affluent regions have even overfulfilled their quotas.

For example, Songjiang Prefecture, which is close to Shanghai, relies on the various conveniences brought by Shanghai. The development of Songjiang Prefecture has been quite rapid in recent years, and the rapid economic development rate is the first in Jiangnan Prefecture. It's a little stronger than Suzhou.

According to the guidance of the Ministry of Education, the government should set up a primary secondary school.

But in reality there are four primary schools in the province, and the number of higher primary schools and elementary novels is much higher than the stated number.

What is even more rare is that Songjiang Prefecture relied on local finances to set up Songjiang High School on its own.

It is actually quite not easy to rely on the power of the government to set up a higher secondary school on its own without the support of the central government.

Although the number of high schools in the Jiangnan area is the largest in the country, there are Shanghai High School and Suzhou High School. There are a total of five high schools, including Jingshi High School. However, these higher secondary schools are basically supported by the central government and then cooperated by local finances, and there are a few simple private schools, relying on expensive tuition fees to maintain expenses.

In addition to Shanghai and Guangzhou, Songjiang Prefecture is the third to rely solely on the state government's finances to run a government-run high school.

Affluent regions like Songjiang can overdo the promotion of new education, but the vast majority of state capitals in the country cannot.

For example, some state capitals without industry have to rely on traditional agricultural taxes to maintain administrative expenses, and these state capitals have to be careful about their budgets. Then it can free up a few thousand yuan to run a school, many state capitals generally only have a primary middle school, and the counties below have a higher high school, and the elementary school is basically the original private school to change the name. There are very few fully government-run primary schools, and even one county has at most one.

As for the high schools, except for a few state capitals in the country with better industrial development. Ordinary state governments do not have the ability to open higher secondary schools on their own, and they are generally organized by provincial education departments. With provincial financial support, there is only one higher secondary school in the same province.

And some provinces are really poor. For example, in Fujian, Shaanxi, Guizhou and other provinces, it is often difficult for the provincial finance to subsidize the annual running expenses of higher secondary schools, and it is often necessary to raise funds from the private sector.

For example, at present, the only high school in Fujian Province, that is, Fuzhou High School, is donated by the gentry of Fujian Province.

It is the common practice of local state capitals to set up a few more schools when they have money, and to run fewer schools when they have no money.

But from the perspective of the empire, it can't always be like this, no matter how poor the local state is, but it is better for a county to have a higher primary school, and a prefecture to have a primary school.

Even if a single county or government is unable to organize it, can neighboring counties and state governments cooperate in organizing it?

In order to improve the basic education problem throughout the empire, the Ministry of Education planned to promote and improve the new education system throughout the country in 1862, not only in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, etc., but also in the remote inland provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Shaanxi.

To this end, the Ministry of Education has prepared an annual investment of at least 5 million yuan in education support funds to support the preparation of new schools in remote areas.

In addition to improving basic education nationwide, the Ministry of Education will continue to invest in higher education.

Efforts will be made to ensure that the three new universities, which are expected to open in 1862, will be opened, and more normal and technical schools will be established.

Whether it is basic education or higher education, it costs money, and fortunately, the funding of the Ministry of Education has risen sharply this year, reaching an unprecedented 20 million, otherwise it would not be able to meet such a huge expenditure.

Since 1858, the empire's investment in education has been increasing, and the increase is very large, when the empire was first established in 1857, not to mention education funds, even administrative funds were not much, basically more than 90% of the financial revenue was used to fight wars.

However, after 1859, the proportion of military spending began to decline significantly, and the Ministry of Education's funding also increased, and the following two years also increased rapidly.

Last year, the expenditure on education reached 10 million, but this year it has reached 18 million, accounting for 6 percent of the central government's expenditure. (To be continued.) )

PS: It's dark, cold and boring, just shout: Comrades have worked hard! (Please imagine the Tiananmen parade on your own)