Wang Xijue's real purpose of inspecting the world is actually to talk to the governors and governors who have real power in the world about the increase in commercial taxes according to Zhu Yijun's suggestion, which can be regarded as a thorough investigation to see the attitude of these feudal officials towards this matter.

Those who are willing to cooperate will naturally stay in the future and continue to serve as the feudal officials.

Those who do not cooperate will naturally be deposed.

Valuable comments may also be reused.

During the Zhang Juzheng period, when Zhang Juzheng wanted to reform the system and wanted to contact the governors of the world, he did so through private messages in the name of enhancing personal relationships.

As a result, although some people are willing to reform the system, they dare not express their position, for fear of being impeached by the official for suspicion that he and Zhang Juzheng have a private relationship.

And the unwilling officials either directly announced the private message to the public, saying that Zhang Juzheng was in reverse to slap him and win him over, in order to show that he was not afraid of the powerful, he decided to publicize Zhang Juzheng's letter.

Some officials who are unwilling to reform the system either simply "can't read it back" and don't let Zhang Juzheng know his attitude.

Now it is different, Wang Xijue is ordered to take the initiative to meet the major governors, to meet the major governors in the name of the name, and even has the power to nominate whether these governors can become ministers in the future.

Therefore, these governors can't afford not to express their stance on anything, and they don't want to play any tricks of "not being able to read back" or "not flattering the powerful".

After all, if anyone doesn't see Yuanfu, he is unwilling to accept the inspection of the superior leaders, is not active in political affairs, and is a lazy official.

That's why.

Wang Xijue went out of Beijing to inspect the world, which made many governors begin to feel headaches.

"How is this good, if you don't express your position, you will be accused of being a corpse vegetarian meal, and you are unwilling to cooperate with the first minister's questioning of politics; Expressing his position, he was suspected of cooperating with the ministers, and then he was mistaken for a private person of the royal party. ”

And the first governor Wang Xijue to see when he went out of Beijing was not the governor of Beizhi, but Gu Yangqian, the governor of Jiliao.

Because the goods coming from the north basically pass through the jurisdiction of the governor of Jiliao, and it is best to set up a card to collect taxes in the jurisdiction of the governor of Jiliao, so Wang Xijue also came to Jizhou first.

Gu Yangqian, the governor of Jiliao, also sighed at Yan Mingtai, the deputy envoy who also came to greet Wang Xijue, when he went out of the city to greet Wang Xijue.

Yan Mingtai echoed: "Yes, the Son of Heaven is forcing all the corporal doctors in the world to be put on nose rings, and let Wang Taicang insist on this nose ring to cultivate the world for him, renovate and hoe the old." ”

While the two were talking, Wang Xijue got out of the sedan chair and walked over.

Gu Yangqian and the others bowed their hands and said, "Yuanfu." ”

"You don't have to be formal! What is the relationship between you and me, it's better not to see outside. ”

Wang Xijue smiled and helped Gu Yangqian up, and said: "This time I asked for an order to go out of Beijing, not for anything else, just to ask the government of the world, not to talk about justice!" It is equivalent to that I am here to ask you feudal ministers for advice, and I am here as a student, so I can rest assured that Chong'an is here. ”

"How dare a subordinate be the teacher of Yuanfu."

"If Motosuke has anything to ask, just ask."

Gu Yangqian replied with a smile.

Wang Xijue did not directly respond to Gu Yangqian's words, but just looked at the streets of Jizhou City:

"There are a lot of shops here, and like the towns I passed through, I really saw them everywhere over the years."

"It's just that the commercial tax levied by the imperial court is still far less than the field tax?"

"This is naturally the court's love for the people, and the benevolence of our emperor."

Gu Yangqian replied with such a sentence, which was to block what Wang Xijue was going to say next, so that Wang Xijue couldn't say anything, and he couldn't say that he didn't plan to let His Majesty be benevolent anymore?

This also made Wang Xijue understand Gu Yangqian's attitude, and said:

"What Chong'an said is, but I'm not here to talk about business taxes, I'm here to talk about railway construction, and I want to see where the railways are most needed in all the prefectures and counties in the world."

"You know, the imperial court has always wanted to build more railways, but the country is so big, I don't know where to let the railways go in the next few years."

"Motosuke!"

After hearing this, Gu Yangqian hurriedly handed over to Wang Xijue, and then as a native of Nanzhitongzhou, he said:

"There must be no doubt that there is no greater need for railways than in the Southern Straight State."

"Really?"

Wang Xijue asked with a smile.

Gu Yangqian hurriedly said: "Yuanfu, you should know that the southern direct passage is busy with goods, and if there is no railway, it is really not conducive to the people and business. ”

Wang Xijue said: "The meaning of Shenwu County should be through Suzhou first, saying that Suzhou is busier in commerce and trade." ”

"Yuanfu, after all, Suzhou is across the river, the cost is very high, it is better to connect the railway between Tongzhou and Yangzhou first, so that Suzhou's commercial goods whether they go to Yangzhou through Tongzhou, or go to Nandu, and then transit, can only set up checkpoints in these two places, and the purpose of increasing commercial tax can be realized!"

Gu Yangqian pondered for a while, and then decisively said the reason why he wanted the imperial court to give his hometown and the future generations to Nantong railway.

Gu Yangqian knew what Wang Xijue meant, it was nothing more than that if he supported commercial taxes, he could go to Nantong to connect the railway first.

Everyone has the idea of benefiting Xiangzi and then benefiting their own family by the way, and Gu Yangqian is no exception, so after realizing that supporting the increase in commercial tax can benefit Xiangzi, he decisively chose to express his support for the increase in commercial tax and not make decisions for the world's businessmen.

"A business tax?"

"So, the public is advocating an increase in commercial taxes?"

Wang Xijue asked at this time.

Gu Yangqian said: "Don't hide it from Yuanfu, the subordinates have long had this intention, such as today, the commercial tax is too low, and the business is becoming more and more prosperous, so not to increase the commercial tax, it is not conducive to benefiting farmers, and agriculture is the foundation of the country!" ”

Wang Xijue's head.

Then, Gu Yangqian said: "It's just that if you really want to increase the commercial tax, it is not possible to rely on the support of a few low-level officials such as subordinates, you have to have the support of other local people, first of all, the police soldiers and the county officials, their families have also been doing business in the local area or marrying with some businessmen, at least let them have no losses, so that they can seriously levy commercial taxes for the imperial court." ”

"I see what you mean."

"How's that?"

"If the additional commercial tax is not fully paid to the imperial court, a certain percentage will be retained in your treasury as additional money for you to recruit more reliable officials and strengthen local construction."

Wang Xijue said.

After hearing this, Gu Yangqian immediately bowed his hand to Wang Xijue: "If this is the case, it will be a blessing for the people of the world!" ”

Wang Xijue smiled faintly.

Next, Wang Xijue met with Song Yingchang, the governor of Beizhi, and discussed the construction of the railway, but the discussion also discussed the matter of commercial taxes.

Song Yingchang also began to express his support for the increase in commercial taxes, and also said that he could not rely on his own support, and in the end, after Wang Xijue could divide the tax to the local government, Song Yingchang also directly expressed his willingness.

In this way, Wang Xijue is a governor and a governor to talk about.

During this period, the governors who had reached an agreement with Wang Xijue began to prepare to assist the National Taxation Department in collecting commercial taxes, and those who did not reach an agreement soon received a bullet stamp, and then were dismissed from their posts.

Finally, from the beginning of the first month of the 37th year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty officially began to increase the commercial tax, and increased the checkpoints everywhere, and increased the tax on the commercial goods that reached a certain value, which greatly increased the original commercial tax of 30 taxes and 1.

Meanwhile.

The Ming Dynasty began to no longer levy land tax, and did not collect taxes on the import of agricultural products and the transportation of agricultural products at various checkpoints, so as to ensure the interests of farmers, and more people were willing to continue farming, rather than choosing to work in the city in exchange for higher incomes.

It must be known that since the Ming Dynasty started the industrialization of steam, the circulation capacity of commodities has been strengthened, and a large number of government-run factories and private factories have begun to appear, so a large number of people have poured into the towns and cities to work, because the income from working in the city has been greater than the income from land.

After all, for yeoman farmers, farming has to pay a higher tax rate not to mention, the income is also quite affected by the weather, especially the Xiaoice River climate is becoming more and more obvious, resulting in an increase in the frequency of droughts, further resulting in farming is not as good as going to the city to work, after all, working in the city does not have to worry about drought and flood, and there is no need to pay land tax.

The same is true for landlords, who are no longer active in annexing domestic land and only actively annex foreign land after discovering that investing in land is no longer as good as investing in factories and overseas mines.

As a result, a large amount of land in the country has begun to be abandoned, and some arable land has begun to be degraded.

Therefore, in order to avoid the serious degradation of local cultivated land in the future to the point of insufficient arable land and affect grain production, resulting in excessive dependence on the grain brought by overseas steam power transportation, the Ming court had to start feeding back to the peasants, and began to increase the commercial tax and exempt the field tax.

Anyway, for the imperial court, the current land tax, which is worth more than 20 million taels of silver, is far less than the hundreds of millions of tariff revenues brought by official commerce in the global colonization.

Therefore, the exemption from land tax is nothing.

In particular, after the imposition of commercial tax, the Ming Dynasty, which had already completely opened up the sea, set up cards to collect transit commercial taxes in Hirado, Nagasaki, Manraka (Malacca), Ho Jing (Macao), Donglai (Taiwan), Luzon, Mubang, Dhaka, etc., will undoubtedly further increase the commercial tax, and the increased commercial tax has completely offset the exemption of the local land tax.

However, although from the first day of the 37th first month of Wanli, according to Zhu Yijun's holy decree, the Ming Dynasty no longer collects land taxes in the local area, there are still many local bureaucrats who are secretly collecting field taxes.

Many honest peasants who do not take the initiative to understand the policy or are afraid of the government are still paying their land taxes honestly.

It was not until some peasant households learned about the policy, or learned from other regions that the imperial court had long since stopped collecting land taxes, and began to refuse to pay the land tax to the local government, and even took out the official newspapers that issued the imperial decree to question the government and even began to oppose it in a fierce and fatal way, that many local governments began to reluctantly choose not to collect the land tax.

But in any case, the local land tax is gradually being abolished.

Because the central court no longer collected taxes, the local bureaucrats did not dare to really fight with the peasant households who knew the policy, so it was not long before there was no more land tax in the world.

Wuxi.

Gao Panlong said to Xue Fu: "I didn't expect that the imperial court would even be exempted from the field tax one day, which is really embarrassing!" ”

"But the increase in commercial taxes is not of much benefit to me in Jiangnan, but it is just a benefit to the small people who are pure farmers." (End of chapter)