I want to be emperor

Chapter 667 Commercial Railway
At the beginning of the founding of the Great Chu Empire, especially when it was still in Huguang, its fiscal revenue mainly relied on agricultural tax, which accounted for about 60.00%.

After moving eastward and occupying the south of the Yangtze River, this situation not only did not improve, but further expanded, because there are many lands of fish and rice in the Yangtze River Basin, and the development of agriculture is already very good, so the tax revenue that agriculture can contribute is also more.

In the fourth or fifth year of Chengshun, the financial revenue of the Great Chu Empire was probably about 70.00% from agriculture, and the remaining [-]% was from industry and commerce.

When the Great Chu Empire began to rely on the Yangtze River Basin to start the South-North War, successively occupied Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places in the south, and went north to occupy the northern provinces such as Jiangbei, Anlu, Shandong, Henan and even Hebei.

It seems that the territory has expanded, but in fact the contribution of agricultural taxation is not much, because these places are either not a land of fish and rice, or have suffered severe natural and man-made disasters, and agricultural production has been greatly damaged.

At the same time, industry and commerce continued to develop at a high speed, which also led to the fact that during the seven or eight years of Chengshun, the central fiscal revenue from the industry and commerce of the Great Chu Empire officially surpassed the agricultural tax and became the main tax revenue of the empire.

The financial revenue of this industry and commerce is also diverse, mainly from the collection of enterprises, especially some medium and large enterprises. As for small enterprises, it seems that the tax laws of the Great Chu Empire are very strict, but the premise is that you have to supervise them in place. However, limited by the cost of tax collection, it is actually difficult for the Great Chu Empire to carry out comprehensive taxation supervision on a large number of small businesses, especially small workshop-style enterprises, especially for these small businesses, workshops generally use cash transactions In this case, it is more difficult to supervise.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire is also difficult to collect taxes in the retail link. In the case of cash transactions, the tax department has almost no way to collect taxes based on sales in the retail link. Let alone the Great Chu Empire in the 21th century, even if it is In the [-]st century, it is also difficult to collect taxes in the retail sector...

Therefore, the Great Chu Empire simply did not engage in any consumption tax. At the same time, it adopted a fixed sales tax system for retail stores, catering and other self-employed businesses. According to the industry and scale, a fixed sales tax was charged, and the sales tax was not high.

But it is better than nothing, and it is better than spending a lot of manpower and material resources to collect income tax, consumption tax and the like.

Therefore, under the circumstances, the industrial and commercial taxation of the Great Chu Empire is mainly concentrated on medium and large enterprises, and more attention is paid to the collection of taxes in the middle and upstream links of production, transportation, and channel wholesale.

This method is a typical indirect tax in the tax system.

Ordinary people don't feel much, because when you buy something, you don't have to pay any consumption tax, and you don't have to ask the merchant to get an invoice.

But in fact, the retail price of the things you buy already includes a lot of taxes, because the companies are paying taxes during the process from raw materials to production to transportation, and these taxes are ultimately Included in the retail price of the product.

Different types of commodities have different tax-included ratios, some are as high as [-]-[-]%, and some are as low as [-]-[-]%. When calculated comprehensively, taxes account for about half of the price of an ordinary industrial commodity. about.

This is indirect taxation, and it is also the main taxation method adopted by most countries in later generations.

Taxation from the business process is much easier than finding people to collect consumption tax, personal income tax, and the like.

As for corporate taxes, there are corporate income tax, value-added tax, stamp duty, and business tax.

In addition to regular corporate taxation, tariffs and several other special taxes also contribute a considerable portion of industrial and commercial revenue.

Tariffs, there are a lot of things, and the Great Chu Empire collects tariffs, not only import tariffs, but also export tariffs, and the bulk of tariffs come from export tariffs.

Because many things imported, especially food, cotton and other industrial raw materials, the Great Chu Empire is open to purchase, long-term tax-free... Only some overseas specialties, especially luxury goods such as spices and pearls and gems, are taxed .

However, there are many export tariffs. Almost all commodities exported by the Great Chu Empire are subject to export taxes, from machine-made cloth to guns and weapons. Export taxes must be paid.

Although there is an export tax rebate policy, it is generally limited to machine-made cloth, and it must be exported in a specific region.

The prosperous overseas trade allowed the Great Chu Empire to collect a lot of tariffs.

The special tax category is aimed at special industries, either monopoly industries or special industries.

For example, the salt industry is a monopoly industry. Only the Great Chu Empire Salt Industry Corporation is allowed to operate this industry. Therefore, the Great Chu Empire Salt Industry Company needs to pay an additional salt tax in addition to the regular corporate tax. This salt tax Not a lot!
After paying the salt tax, in fact, a large part of the remaining profits of the Great Chu Empire Salt Industry Company had to be handed over.

To put it bluntly, this salt company is the government's own monopoly of a certain industry to make money.

This is also the reason why the salt company has been initially industrialized in China, and salt production has no technical difficulties today, and it can still generate a lot of profits.

For salt, the profit level does not depend on the cost and output, but on whether it is a monopoly.

Of course, it’s not a big problem for ordinary people. The salt price of the Great Chu Empire Salt Company is actually very low, far lower than that of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the empire adopts industrial production, especially salt drying in coastal salt fields. The cost is very low.

Even if the price is low, the profit is very considerable.

The most important thing is that everyone has to eat this stuff...the consumption base is very large!

No matter what it is, the base is large, and it is an exclusive monopoly business, so it is very profitable.

Salt is one of the typical!
The salt industry of the Great Chu Empire, the various taxes paid by its salt service companies and the profits turned over to the financial system add up to more than 2000 million every year.

Don't think it's too much, the income of the salt government is nothing compared to the income of the salt industry in the late Qing Dynasty.

The peak salt tax revenue in the late Qing Dynasty reached more than 4000 million taels, and the point is that this is only the salt tax collected by the government of the Qing Dynasty, and does not include the profits of the salt merchants. If the profits of the salt merchants are included, Then this number is even more terrifying.

The more than 2000 million salt government revenue of the Great Chu Empire is the sum of the salt tax and the profits of the salt company.

The economic burden of salt for the people under the Great Chu Empire was far less than that of traditional feudal dynasties.

However, if this is the case, this can also contribute more than 2000 million Chu Yuan's income to the Great Chu Empire.

This shows how huge the profit is to monopolize a basic industry that everyone needs.

In addition to the salt tax, there are several other special taxes, such as tea tax and raw silk tax. The reason why these two industries are taken out separately is because these two industries are relatively special. Traditionally, there have been separate taxes for these industries. The tradition of taxation was only continued in the Great Chu Empire.

Various industrial and commercial tax revenues have made the industrial and commercial tax revenue of the Great Chu Empire surpass the agricultural tax revenue, and now account for more than 80.00% of the total tax revenue.

Of the more than 6000 million tax revenue, 80.00% of the tax revenue is industrial and commercial tax. With this tax ratio structure, no dynasty in the past was able to achieve this.

But the Great Chu Empire did it.

And more and more industrial and commercial tax revenues have supported the Great Chu Empire's southern and northern wars; large-scale construction of various infrastructure such as flood control and irrigation roads; disaster relief; basic and popular education; continuous investment support Industrial development; providing more jobs for the people; subsidies for agricultural tools that can last for more than ten years; tax exemptions for newly reclaimed land, etc.

Ultimately, it will comprehensively enhance the economic firepower of the entire society and improve the living standards of the people.

This is also one of the important reasons for the development of industry and commerce in the Great Chu Empire. The other reason is naturally for national defense!

Only with sufficient financial revenue can the Great Chu Empire have the confidence to engage in the development of the Northeast Plain!
The huge investment of 200 million Chu Yuan is almost unimaginable if it is placed in other dynasties, such as the former Ming Dynasty...the sum of their financial income for two years is not so much, you ask them to spend more than 1000 million It is impossible to develop some kind of bitter cold place.

The development of the Northeast, with policies and funds, it is time to carry out various major actions in the follow-up. For a while, the three provinces in the Northeast began to send a large number of surveyors to various places to conduct surveys, to see where they are suitable for reclamation and establishment of farms , where there are minerals that can be developed.

After surveying, it was discovered that there are a large number of gold mines in many places in Heishui Province.

Especially in the Mohe area, surveyors discovered traces of large gold mines there, and this news caused quite a stir when it was reported back to Jinling City.

After all, this is gold, and the Great Chu Empire is currently searching for gold all over the world to pave the way for the establishment of a pure gold standard, so the desire for gold is very great.

We not only carry out survey and development in China, but also go to overseas territories to conduct survey and development. In the past few years, we have developed gold and silver in Fusang, and in recent years, we have been looking for gold mines everywhere in Nanyang.

After the trace of a large gold mine was discovered in Mohe, the Mining Affairs Department of the Ministry of Industry quickly sent people to conduct a careful survey and prepare for large-scale development.

It's just that during the survey, it was discovered that there were still some ignorant natives in the area, and traces of Russians were also found.

These Russians, like rats that can't be beaten to death, ran around in the area north of Heilongjiang due to the sparsely populated areas. From time to time, they bypassed the fort checkpoints set up by the Chu army in the vast northern area and went deep into the Heilongjiang River Basin.

Now, traces of Russians have been found in the Mohe area.

How can you bear this!

At the same time, once the Northeast Development Plan of the Great Chu Empire is implemented, it will affect the entire area south of Heilongjiang. It is naturally impossible for the Great Chu Empire to allow Russians to flee to the Heilongjiang River Basin from time to time.

For the strategic security of the Northeast Development, it is also for the security of the Xiaobeihaifu area, and it is also for the security of the entire Mobei Mongolian area.

After preparing for more than a year, the Great Chu Empire finally planned to attack the Russians.

The northern strategy has already been formulated and long-term preparations have been made. In the rear, the Great Chu Empire will even build a small town from Zhangjiakou, Hebei, all the way north, with an interval of about [-] to [-] kilometers.

This kind of small town on the grassland not only has traditional military functions such as garrisoning troops and supplies, but also provides accommodation, food, and rest for passing business travelers.

These small towns go all the way north, first arriving at Guihua, then at Fengzhou Beach, then bypassing Yinshan Mountain and going all the way north, after entering the territory of Mobei Province, and then arriving at Urge (Kulun), the capital of Mobei Province.

Then it extended northward from Urge, and there were some fortresses one after another, and went northward into the city of Kuer, the prefecture of Xiaobeihai Prefecture.

Starting from Tianjin all the way to the city of Kuer by land, it is more than 2000 kilometers away, and this route is also an important supply line for the Chu army in this area.

The maintenance of this supply line is the towns along the way that have been successively established over the past ten years.

Otherwise, the Great Chu Empire would not be able to maintain such a long supply line in a truly desolate place.

However, in the past two or three years, the Great Chu Empire has focused on the military, and has carried out renovations on this long supply line. This renovation is mainly based on the strength of the army.

The main thing is to slightly level the roads on the wasteland, and build bridges in some areas that cross the river.

Only in this way can a large amount of materials departing from Tianjin be transported all the way north with four-wheeled heavy-duty freight carriages, transported all the way to the city of Chur by relay, and distribute the materials to the garrison in the surrounding areas with the city of Chur as the core .

In addition to the roads, it is actually more obvious that there are a large number of heavy four-wheeled carriages. For the transportation of materials, the Great Chu Empire has always been enthusiastic about the research on the carriages, and not only the carriages themselves, but also the railways by the way.

Now in the Great Chu Empire, there are hundreds of kilometers of railways in total, and horse-drawn carriages run on these railways.

And every year, companies, mainly mining companies and other companies that need to transport a large amount of goods build a large number of railways by themselves.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Communications, within 21 years of Chengshun, it is estimated that more than 300 kilometers of railways will be built and put into operation, which will make the total mileage of the Great Chu Empire’s railways exceed [-] kilometers.

It is estimated that future generations will not believe it... The Great Chu Empire does not even have a steam train, not even a high-pressure steam engine, but the total mileage of the railway has already exceeded [-] kilometers.

This is all because of the huge demand for material transportation, especially the wide application of steam engines, and the large number of folks who began to use briquettes for heating and cooking, which led to a sharp increase in the demand for coal in the market. In recent years, the coal mining companies of the Great Chu Empire have been increasing year by year. For more than a year, more coal has been produced year by year, but the supply of coal is still in short supply.

The large demand for coal is also the direct motivation for major mines, especially coal mine owners, to adopt steam engines and build railways.

Because they need to increase coal production and require greater transportation capacity, naturally a lot of research has been carried out on the core tools of land transportation, railways and horse-drawn carriages.

Let’s not talk about carriages anymore, let’s talk about railways. In the short ten years of the Great Chu Empire, the railways have been updated several times. Now the latest wrought iron I-shaped railway has rails that can be built on a large scale in later generations to run steam engines. Railroads are no different.

Not to mention that mine bosses want to do it, in fact, the military wants to do it even more. Even if only horse-drawn carriages are used to run on the railway, the transportation volume can become larger!
But the problem is, apart from mine bosses, not many people really can afford railways these days.

This thing is very expensive!
Under the plain terrain, the cost per kilometer is [-] to [-] Chu Yuan.

From Tianjin to Chur City, if the railway is built all the way, it will cost at least 4000 to [-] million Chu Yuan.

Moreover, there are few people along the way, except for the military and a small number of business travelers, there are not even a few people, and not many goods will use this railway.

Spending so much money is just to make the four-wheeled carriage transporting army supplies run more smoothly, and a lunatic would do this!
Therefore, the Army wants to build a railway all the way to Chur City in the north. This is impossible, and it is less reliable than the Northwest Railway. At least the demand for the Northwest Railway is stronger.

After all, these railways are, in a sense, war-ready railways with little commercial value.

Tens of millions of dollars are poured in just for the convenience of fighting, and the high-level officials of the Great Chu Empire can't do this even if they are prodigal.

Therefore, it is nowhere in sight to build these combat-ready railways!

In contrast, in prosperous commercial places, where there is a strong land transportation of goods or people, it becomes profitable to build such railways, such as railways in major mining areas, or railways between two economically important cities.

In the spring and April of the 21st year of Chengshun, some local newspapers applied for the construction of a commercial railway!
(End of this chapter)