Liu Hanmo spoke carefully.

"The tax approved by the Suzhou government in a year is 2.8 million stones, and in the entire Ming Dynasty, the annual tax is only 30 million stones."

"Suzhou's proportion is almost one-tenth of the world."

"However, the cultivated area of Suzhou is only 1.1 percent of the world's."

"For a long time, Suzhou's taxes have been nearly nine times higher than the average in the world."

"If it is lighter than some areas with lighter taxes, the difference is more than ten times."

Zhu Yunxi was silent.

Although I knew that Suzhou's taxes were heavier, I didn't expect it to be so heavy.

However, the imperial court must have its intentions in setting taxes, and repeatedly weighed the pros and cons before making a decision.

Lao Zhu is not a willful person.

This kind of thing, without an in-depth understanding, it is best not to express it lightly.

Therefore, he listened quietly.

"In the tax system of this dynasty, all official fields are taxed five liters and five scoops per mu, farmland is reduced by two liters, and heavy leased fields are eight liters and five in five spoons, and there is no official land with one bucket and two liters."

(Note: Wuguantian refers to the official land confiscated due to criminal raids and other reasons)

"When Suzhou was in the Yuan Dynasty, one-third of the fields were the official fields of the Yuan Dynasty, and later rebelled against Zhang Shicheng and rebelled, occupying Suzhou, and confiscated all the official fields of the Yuan Dynasty.

"In this way, under the rule of Zhang Shicheng, Suzhou's official fields have been expanded, almost reaching nearly half."

"When Zhang Shicheng was destroyed in this dynasty, and then his official land was taken back into official ownership, and the land owned by the wealthy merchant landlord who had served him was confiscated, seven or eight fields in Suzhou had become official."

"And among them, almost all of them are the most taxed unofficial land."

"According to the tax system, is there a reason why Suzhou is not taxable?"

Zhu Yunxi suddenly realized.

Suzhou is the heaviest tax, which is actually an overall concept.

If the farmland owned by ordinary people is still the same as in other places, it is not treated differently and is heavily taxed.

The problem is that after rounds of changes in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng, Daming, etc., most of the fields in Suzhou have become the most taxed unofficial fields.

Suzhou's overall tax has become ridiculously high.

"Some people think that the majority of the people do not have much land, and they are nothing more than renting the fields of rich and large landlords, paying rent to them, and paying taxes to the imperial court, how much difference can there be?"

"That's not unreasonable."

"But the situation in Suzhou is different from other places."

"The people who have no land in other places rent ordinary official land and pay a tax of five liters and three in five spoons to the imperial court for one acre."

"And most of Suzhou is unofficial. One mu has to pay a tax of one bucket and two liters, which is much heavier than in other places. ”

"The most miserable are the poor people."

When Zhu Yunxi heard this, he couldn't help but open his mouth, and he didn't know what to say.

The Ming Dynasty has a strict household registration system, and the people cannot go to other places at will.

But they had to survive, they had to rent the land.

If you can't rent the official land with lighter taxes, you can only rent the unofficial land with heavier taxes, and the burden can be imagined.

The imperial court cracked down on the powerful landlords, but in the end it became the landless people to bear the cost.

This result really makes people a little laughable.

But throughout history, from ancient times to the present, most policies have not been the same.

Xing, the people are bitter.

Death, the people suffer.

Crack down on the powerful and inhibit mergers.

Dynasties have been doing it for generations.

After all, any ruler knows that the people have nothing to eat, they are desperate, and they are going to rebel.

But it worked.

No dynasty has taken control of the problem of land annexation.

"The land tax is heavy, and the people can only find another livelihood."

Liu Hanmo said with a smile: "Suzhou has been a commercial center since ancient times, and the lack of land production is supplemented by commerce. ”

"Poor peasant households who have no land can also work in wealthy businessmen to supplement their livelihood."

"In this way, Suzhou City will not only not be depressed, but will be extraordinarily prosperous."

Zhu Yunxi was stunned again.

This was an unintended effect.

Is this an alternative "enclosure movement"?

The peasants, who were landless and could not afford heavy taxes, were forced to go to the city to work, providing a large number of cheap labor, thus promoting the development of the budding capitalism in Suzhou?

Liu Hanmo sighed and said: "But this dynasty is different from the previous dynasty, the previous dynasty did not restrict commerce and trade, or even encouraged it. However, the current dynasty emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, and banned maritime trade, which was far stricter than the previous dynasty, and Suzhou's commerce and trade gradually failed. ”

"Before that, it was just barely supporting."

Zhu Yunxi smiled and said, "What Lord Liu said doesn't seem to have anything to do with Lone?" ”

He wondered.

Proposing a sea ban on himself is only good for Suzhou.

As for the imposition of a business tax, although it will temporarily increase the expenses of merchants, it will not cause them to go bankrupt.

In the name of tax certificates, the liberalization of business qualifications will only promote the prosperity of commerce.

Liu Hanmo saluted and said: "His Royal Highness Taisun is talented through heaven and earth, there are poems that can be passed down through the ages, and Wu Zetong is invincible for thousands of troops, and the few suggestions given in the court are also to the point." ”

"Although the increase in business tax does not reduce the income of merchants, if we take a long-term view, we know that this policy can make business more stable."

"Besides, His Royal Highness Taisun has formulated an invoice system and a tax certificate system."

"On the one hand, it has opened the threshold for ordinary people to do business and broken the monopoly of merchants."

"On the other hand, it has eliminated the problem of double tax collection by local governments."

"To be honest, the actual tax on merchants has not necessarily increased, and may have decreased."

Prior to this, although the taxes of the Ming Dynasty were very low, they were very chaotic to collect.

The local government set up cards everywhere to collect taxes.

Every time you pass a place, you may be taken in.

What seems like a light tax becomes heavy.

In fact, most of the "passing merchant taxes" collected by these local governments did not enter the Ming treasury.

If it's all embezzled, it's not either.

Lao Zhu is strict in his fight against corruption, and the officials in the Hongwu period have not been so bold.

The mere collection of the tax on the passer-by requires a lot of manpower.

And after receiving the money, the local government will take the money and hire more people to do this and that.

It doesn't matter if it's useful or not.

Any government tends to constantly expand its yamen and institutions.

If you don't have anything to do, find something to do.

All kinds of documents, meetings, and ......

What's more, it is also a convention for people to be superficial.

Even in the era of scientific and technological civilization in later generations, the tendency of local government to expand is difficult to suppress.

The imperial court had to enforce the quota of the establishment and pass one administrative order after another ordering the local government to continuously reduce and reduce the number of personnel......

It is still just barely controlling the bureaucracy and not desperately inflating.

If the imperial court does not enforce the control and opens its mouth, many local governments can quickly expand the number of personnel several times or dozens of times.

It's not a joke that every family eats public meals.

As for how to raise it, can you afford it...... Yin eats the grain, and then mixes it first.

If you really want to wipe your ass, that's also the business of the next ruling official.

The establishment of the Ming Dynasty is not as strict as that of later generations.

Officials take office by themselves.

As for the appointment of personnel in the county government office, basically the chief official has the final say.

In this way, after receiving the money, the number of people in the yamen doing all kinds of chores increased correspondingly.

All the money was spent, but the court did not receive a penny.

The establishment of the invoice system, the collection of taxes according to the ticket, and the elimination of repeated collection by the local government, have actually reduced the burden on many small and medium-sized businesses.

The ones who really add to the burden are those tycoons and wealthy businessmen.

Because they often collude with the powerful, or simply become the family slaves of the powerful.

Until then, the local government did not dare to double taxes on them.

Therefore, the powerful officials in the imperial court were so dissatisfied with Zhu Yunxi's proposal to reform the tax system and increase the commercial tax.

After all, their own vital interests are involved.

Liu Hanmo said: "Except for a few giant merchants, small and medium-sized merchants in Suzhou, ordinary people, all praise His Royal Highness Taisun's suggestion. ”

"The opening of the sea ban makes everyone happy."

Zhu Yunxi was puzzled: "According to what you say, Suzhou should be prosperous because of loneliness, but why is it depressed because of loneliness?" ”

Liu Hanmo's expression was gloomy, he took a deep breath, and said, "His Royal Highness must still remember Wu Wanggeng's matter?" ”

(End of chapter)