The midsummer of Yanhuang 4602 seems to have been an eventful summer.

In just 83 days, the provinces of the country have been restored one after another, except for the northeast and Mongolia, the rivers and mountains have been restored, and the prestige of the Han family seems to have been restored in an instant.

On the one hand, in order to maintain the stability of the country and achieve a smooth transition from the colonial regime to the national regime, almost all the local officials of the "uprising" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, except for the banner people, remained in their old posts, and the judiciary and taxation followed the old laws. On the other hand, the implementation of the new policy and the promotion of new learning are the top priorities of the ruling axe. Although the ruling axe has sent tens of thousands of officials to various places, compared with China, the tens of thousands of officials are far from enough to meet the needs of the whole country, and Xinxue education also faces various problems.

"Build a castle on the beach!"

Despite the fact that the Liberation Army was stationed in the provinces, Western observers still used this phrase to describe the construction of the Nanjing regime. The nationalized central power, the local officials of the old dynasties, the young and uneven officials of the grass-roots affairs, perhaps as they described, the foundation of the ruling axe is not solid, and some even suspect that if it were not for the role of the Liberation Army, perhaps China would have fallen into civil strife after the liberation.

However, even the situation in the Liberation Army was not optimistic, and since the appearance of this army in front of the world, the internal purges have never stopped, and a large number of non-Communist Party officers and members have been tried by military courts, or expelled from the army, thrown into prison, or sentenced to death.

The army is the root of the source of power of the ruling axe, but for the ruling axe, although the power comes from the army, the stability and future of the power comes from outside the army - taxes, and the officials sent by the ruling axe to various places focus on finance and taxation, the second is education, and the third is justice. Controlling the tax source means controlling everything, which is the most powerful way to build a castle on this scattered sand, and sometimes money is more powerful than guns.

In August, the Advisory Office of the Ruling Axe convened a national council of national concern, the 4602 National Finance and Taxation Conference, and the whole meeting was full of twists and turns, and it was not so smooth, but in the end, after all, the scheduled agenda was basically completed, and a new tax system was established in imitation of European and American countries, especially the reference to the original tax system.

A series of new agencies, such as the State Taxation Bureau and the Tax Police, were established one after another, and despite the twists and turns, the new taxes were still expected by the outside world, and as a precursor to the implementation of the new taxes, the various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the autumn classes in the rural areas were abolished, and then the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes against industrial and commercial people were also banned, leaving only the regular taxes stipulated in the "Interim Decree on Income Tax" and "Interim Decree on Corporate Tax" and other laws.

After the ruling axe bears a loss of more than 30 million yuan a year and bans harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the world's attention to the new tax system has turned to another focus - the centigold system, and this is precisely the focus of attention of the outside world.

After all, for them, compared with the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the new tax system is simple, but the amount of tax payment and strength are far beyond the old system.

After all, a considerable number of the councillors in the council were either businessmen themselves or had close ties with the gentry, and it was precisely because these people had not yet figured out the duties of the councillors that the new tax system was passed under the persuasion of Zhang Zhidong and others and the temptation that he said that the levy would be exempted.

The new tax system was passed, and one ruling decree after another was signed, but there was no sign of banning the centigold, which really made some people anxious for a while, and only a few people knew that the reason why the centigold was not banned was because of another reason.

“…… Taking June as an example, only the seven provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, and Guizhou have levied taxes on the levy, that is, as much as 2.46 million taels! This month, the national gold can be as much as 4.95 million taels! ”

Chen Moran, who was smoking a cigarette, couldn't help but be startled when he heard the number Guan Mingtang say.

"I remember that last year, the provinces of the Manchu Qing Dynasty collected less than 12 million taels of gold, according to this calculation, we have to collect 60 million taels of gold a year! How can this tax be heavier than that of the Manchus! ”

This will Chen Moran was really frightened, looking at Guan Mingtang's gaze also changed slightly, the national finance and taxation are all in charge of it, although the tax increase is his own meaning, but he is too dark-hearted!

"In power, the tax of centigold, the whole country is not unified, all the provinces set their own gold standards, for example, all the rich and poor people from birth to death, said to use the things they need, all are among the levied, five miles a card, ten miles a bureau, divided by a certain amount of income to serve the central government, a large part of the free disposal by the local authorities, showing the feudal local separatist surname. A large part of the tax revenue collected by the local government is not included as official income, and a large part of it is disguised by local officials as a disguised full-bounder, and in the Manchu officialdom, it is said that "the state and county are short for one year, and the bureau is not as bad as the one year." The salary of the bureau is not much, and it is mainly due to erosion and erosion to obtain this huge amount of money. The Manchu Qing Dynasty earned more than 11,700,000 taels of gold last year, which refers to the central government's collection, and the local interception of more than 20 million yuan, and the officials are not less than this amount, and the exploitation of the bureau is far more than this amount, and now the sum of the four is less than 60 million, but in fact it is a clear increase and a secret decrease. ”

Guan Mingtang talked eloquently there, although he was not willing to ask for money, but when financial resources were tight, it was the only way.

"Although centigold is the largest source of tax at present, the disadvantages of centigold far outweigh its benefits, not to mention that it increases the economic burden of the people, and it seriously hinders the circulation of commodities and inhibits the development of production. And it also affects our country's foreign trade ,......"

Without waiting for Guan Mingtang to finish speaking, Chen Moran waved his hand.

"Now is not the time to ban the centigold, I am not heartbroken for that bit of silver, I am not so short-sighted, I know the disadvantages of centigold, in the past in the industry when we were not tax? Affect the flow of commodities, raise prices, affect commodity competition, and this cent of gold only collects foreign businessmen, not foreigners, in fact, it is to help foreigners suppress domestic products, how can I not know? ”

Sipping tea, Chen Moran continued.

"This centigold, the national businessmen complained, but those foreign merchants, and even the consuls of various countries are also complaining, although they can't collect their centigold, but it affects their business interests, where did the foreign bank go? In the end, it is the national businessmen who market foreign goods, and the national businessmen naturally have to pay the gold, and the gold I have disadvantages, and the businessmen of various countries also have disadvantages, after the new tax, the British consul has repeatedly tested the meaning of the ruling axe to the centigold, for all countries, they also need a healthy market environment, when he tests us, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has to test their attitude towards the agreement tariff, the British answer is that if you want to raise taxes, you must first cut the tax, otherwise there is no way to talk about it. ”

"Ruling the government, you mean to use centigold as a tool to force countries to agree to tax increases?"

"It is tariff independence, next year, we want to strive to re-establish a new treaty with other countries, take back rights and interests, we must start with tariff independence, without tariff protection, there can be no Chinese industry, this tariff worth 500 draws, it is time to completely abolish it!"

"But countries don't necessarily agree!"

"Agree or not is a matter of saying, this time our railway negotiations are in danger, but now? Didn't you still take back the right of way? ”

By resisting the public opinion of foreign goods and the harshness of the new road standards, the ruling axe succeeded in taking back the right of way without spending a tael of silver, and as for the set of standards, it was naturally temporarily shelved, and he had no intention of implementing the world-leading railway standards.

"To be in power, for the great powers, the interests of the great powers in China are just surnames, and they are never willing to give up the interests they have in hand. From the perspective of the treaty system as a whole, the tariff agreement can be said to be the most important clause and the foundation of the economic policy of the great powers toward China. Moreover, the one-sided most-favored-nation treatment has made the interests of the great powers in China intertwined, and both have prosperity, but they cannot have both losses, and even if we may pry open the barriers to tariffs under the agreement, we may not have much hope of recovering the tariffs in one fell swoop; two years ago, Zhang and Liu also tried to negotiate with other countries to raise taxes, but the results were ......."

Without waiting for Guan Mingtang to finish speaking, Chen Moran interrupted him.

For the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the implementation of the new policy is a reform, for us, it is also a reform, any reform must start with the economy, first solve the problems of people's livelihood, if you want to set a road map, you must first develop the economy, political reform. Without economic development, all other political demands are utopian, and human rights and social justice should take precedence in political reform. Compared with others, for a certain period of time, boiling is a luxury, and economic reform, this tariff can be said to be the top priority of economic development, tariffs are not autonomous, everything is empty talk. ”

Shrugged helplessly, only in front of his old team can he say what he thinks in his heart, Guan Mingtang is a person who does things, he has been in the United States for so many years, and he has no Chinese oil, and some just have a mind to do things, and this is what Chen Moran values him, too many people around him always spend their efforts on how to behave, not on doing things.

(To be continued)