"Dare to ask Your Highness, what is the tax set by Emperor Hongwu now." Hu Ye asked Zhu Di.

"Ten taxes and one tax for agriculture, and one tax for thirty taxes on commerce." Zhu Di replied in the affirmative.

"Your Highness, the production level of my Ming Dynasty is not low, and commerce is also very prosperous, why can't the tax be raised?" Hu Ye asked again.

Several people in the inner hall fell into deep thought, and Zhu Di even tapped the table with his fingers.

"Your Highness, there are many reasons for this, but there are two main ones. First, tax evasion is serious. ”

Hu Ye didn't play dumb riddles with Zhu Di and them, this is extremely obvious, there is no reason why Zhu Di and they can't see it, but they must not be able to think of a good way.

Hu Ye continued, "Emperor Hongwu customized, officials and gentry can be exempt from taxes, so no matter how much assets this class has, they don't have to pay taxes. But here's the problem, with such a loophole, naturally someone will take advantage of the loophole. Attach the fields to which they have to pay taxes to the names of these gentry. In this way, there is no need to pay taxes to the imperial court. ”

In this way, the imperial court will lose a large part of its tax revenue. There are also those commercial taxes, although they are only thirty taxes and one, but they are also a lot of income. But there is no treachery or business, and the people can see this loophole, and there is no reason why they can't see it. As a result, many merchants colluded with the officials and gentry, and they gave the officials and gentry some benefits, and attached their property to the names of these officials and gentry, so that they did not have to pay taxes to the imperial court. ”

As a result, the imperial court's tax revenue became less and less. Once there is a war, if the imperial court wants to increase taxes, the only way to do so is to put the extra taxes on those honest people. Let these already helpless people bear a heavier burden. ”

"Therefore, in my opinion, the tax payable by the Ming Dynasty is not low, at least not a few million taels of the treasury. But a significant part did not go to the treasury, but to the pockets of the officials and gentry. If Your Highness doesn't believe it, you can go and check the property of these officials in Beiping, a large part of which is not their own, but those fields and shops that do not need to pay taxes. The taxes to be paid on these things are definitely more than the silver in the treasury. ”

After Hu Ye finished speaking, he looked at the five people in the inner hall and found that they nodded frequently, as if they had said the point.

Just kidding, what I said is not the point, so many scholars in later generations have studied it for hundreds of years, if they can't even see this, those so-called scholars can hang themselves.

In fact, Hu Ye said this, which was not too serious in the early Ming Dynasty, after all, Zhu Yuanzhang had a big rectification in the past few years. Two major corruption cases involving more than 10,000 people were raised, and these officials and gentry had to be somewhat restrained. Coupled with some of the legacies left by the Yuan Dynasty, the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties were not too poor.

But in the later period, there was a strong enemy invasion outside, corruption inside, and the financial deficit of the Ming Dynasty reached an outrageous point.

Therefore, Hu Ye believes that this issue must be raised as soon as possible, so that Zhu Di can take precautions. Although he can't rectify it now, after all, Lao Zhu is still in the position, and this is the policy set by Lao Zhu, no matter how unwilling he is, he can only implement it.

"This problem is difficult to solve, when my father ascended the throne, in order to gain the support of these officials and gentry, my father exempted these people from taxes. So it's impossible to collect taxes from these people. However, this kind of land annexation and shop affiliation are also quite harmful, and sooner or later it will be a hidden danger. Zhu Di also nodded and said.

"It would be great for His Highness to recognize this. However, this is not the main reason for low taxes. Hu Ye said.

"Oh, what's the reason, come quickly." Zhu Di asked curiously.

"In fact, the main reason is the tax policy set by Emperor Hongwu."

"What do you mean by that?" Zhu Di was puzzled, and the four people next to him also pricked up their ears and listened.

"At the beginning, Emperor Hongwu set the commercial tax to be 30 taxes and 1, because he was afraid that the tax of merchants would increase, and the price of goods would be too high, which would increase the burden on the people of the world. As everyone knows, this series of policies has put the burden on the people. The commercial tax was very low, the gentry did not pay taxes, and the money and grain of the treasury naturally came from the people. ”

And the common people of some backgrounds attached their land to the names of the gentry. Such a helpless people have become the main ones of injustice, and this precisely increases the burden on the people. So I think Emperor Hongwu's tax policy is fundamentally wrong. Hu Ye said without hesitation.

In later generations, Zhu Yuanzhang's tax policy has always been criticized, this kind of policy is to please the gentry class, but the people are miserable enough, which is the root cause of the continuous outbreak of peasant uprisings in the Ming Dynasty.

"His Royal Highness King Yan, who is this kid, how dare he criticize the current saint so much?"

After listening to Hu Ye's speech, the person Hu Ye had never seen suddenly said to Zhu Di.

"Brother Jin Zhong, don't be surprised, this is a disciple of a master, and he has a thorough knowledge of heaven and earth. As for criticizing today's saint, he even gave a white hat to His Royal Highness King Yan, is he still afraid of two criticisms? ”

Without waiting for Zhu Di to speak, Zhang Yu spoke, not taking Hu Ye's belittling of the soldiers to heart at all.

"Really? With such courage at such an age, I don't know where to learn? The man named Jin Zhong looked at Hu Ye curiously and said.

"It turned out to be Lord Jin Zhong, who has admired the name for a long time." Hu Ye bowed to Jin Zhong very modestly, this goods will be the secretary of the military department in the future, an important adviser to Zhu Di, and a powerful person. In the later battle for Zhu Di's two sons, he played a pivotal role.

"Okay, okay, if you have time to know in the future, let's solve the current problem first." Zhu Di waved his hand to stop Hu Ye and Jin Zhong from continuing to chat.

He really wanted to know what countermeasures Hu Ye had to make his pockets bulge, so he said, "Since you proposed that your father's policy is biased, you must have already taken measures, come and listen, your master taught you how to make money." ”

"Your Highness, in fact, this doorway is still in taxes. The income of the merchant group is far higher than that of the common people, but they only have to pay one-third of the tax of the common people, so if His Royal Highness wants to increase the tax and cannot increase the tax of the gentry class, he might as well start with these merchants. Hu Ye didn't pay attention to Jin Zhong anymore, anyway, there will be opportunities in the future.

But my father strictly ordered that no taxes should be raised on the merchants, for fear that the merchants would impose these taxes on the heads of the people. So it's very difficult to start with these businessmen. Zhu Di sighed, he thought that Hu Ye could come up with any good idea, but he didn't expect it to be just a bad idea.

"Hehe, Your Highness doesn't have to draw conclusions so early, you might as well listen to one of my stories before it's too late." Hu Ye said with a wicked smile.

Zhu Di was stunned, Zhang Yu and Zhang Fu were also stunned, why did this Hu Ye love to tell stories so much. Only Dao Yan and Jin Zhong stared at Hu Ye with wide eyes, they really wanted to hear the story of this matter.