Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 236
In the morning, Qin Lang's land tax said that he could raise more than 1000 million shi of grain for the court every year, but now he held up a salt shaker and said that he could raise [-] million guan in taxes for the court in the next year.

This tone is really too big.

Dai Zhou couldn't take it anymore, he put down his chopsticks and stood up.

"Even according to the previous Yi Guogong's estimation, there are 2000 million people in the world today, and the tax increase this year will be tens of millions. Doesn't it mean that each person will increase the tax by half? Doesn't it mean that the family will increase by two Tax? Double tax, do you know how heavy a burden it is? How many people can break their homes?"

"Dai Shenzheng, you are talking about the average. In fact, the consumption of salt is not calculated according to the average. Although everyone needs to eat salt, besides the daily cooking salt, there are many other salt consumption. Such as pickled vegetables, such as for livestock, etc.”

"Furthermore, salt taxation is not as simple as that. Salt can be divided into different grades according to different origins and different qualities, and then different taxes can be imposed. The price of ordinary salt eaten by the people is low and the tax is also low. For example This green salt must be of higher quality and higher price, and the tax is also higher!"

Qin Lang wants to levy a salt tax, and there are some opponents, but it is not very surprising.

After all, the salt government and salt tax have a long history.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to meet the needs of military expenditures for hegemony, Qi State Prime Minister Guan Zhong initiated the policy of Guanshanhai, nationalizing the resources of mountains, forests and seas, and salt and minerals were the first to bear the brunt. He initiated the earliest salt policy in China. The salt government at that time was a partial monopoly system, with private salt production as the mainstay and official salt production as a supplement, but all the salt in the industry had to be sold to the government, and then the government sold it uniformly, and the salt tax was directly included in the salt price.

Qi State also became the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period with the benefit of salt and iron, enriching the country and strengthening the army.

After that, the private salt production in the Qin State was taxed by the government, and then the salt and iron monopoly in the Han Dynasty.During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Wei and Jin Dynasties were salt monopoly, and the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties were tax collection systems.

It was not until the Sui Dynasty ended the Southern and Northern Dynasties and unified the world. After 300 years of chaos and chaos, the country was re-established to rule the world, but the new policy of no monopoly and no salt tax was implemented.

Until now the Tang Dynasty also followed.

Historically, from the founding of the Sui Dynasty to the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a period of more than 130 years when there was no monopoly and no tax on salt.

The common people don't need to eat high-priced salt, and there won't be any desperate private salt dealers.

From the beginning of the Sui Dynasty to the present, there are more than [-] years of history. Now Qin Lang said that he would reopen the salt government, which is undoubtedly a big change.

Dai Zhou is actually right. No matter how Qin Lang's salt policy changes, it will not break away from the two aspects of salt monopoly or salt taxation, and these will lead to an increase in the price of salt. In the end, the salt tax is actually grafted onto the common people. It will become a new burden for the people.

However, Li Shimin was attracted by the huge number of tens of millions.

"Huailiang, tell me about your new salt policy?"

Qin Lang's salt administration is actually the salt administration that matured after the mid-Tang Dynasty, namely the five major links of civil system, government revenue, official sales, commercial transportation, and commercial sales. This can save government expenses and expand sales through salt merchant channels.

On-the-spot monopoly is a policy of combining tax with price. Privately produced salt is purchased by the government, and then the salt tax is included in the salt price and sold to salt merchants.

This can not only guarantee the salt tax, but also save the government's expenditure.

In Qin Lang's plan, the imperial court first had to check the salt farms in various places, and the government issued licenses and salt production licenses to each salt farm, and then they were qualified to mine salt and make salt. The salt they produced could only Sell ​​to the government, private sale is prohibited.

Then the government sells the collected salt to salt merchants for them to sell.

Separate salt production from salt sales, add salt tax directly to the salt price, and sell salt to salt merchants, the tax has already been collected in advance.

In order to prevent salt merchants from raising salt prices and affecting people's livelihood, Qin Lang plans to add Changping salt to Changping warehouses, just like the grain in Changping warehouses. The supply of salt in remote areas is tight, and official warehouses directly sell salt at a low price to curb salt prices.In addition, salt warehouses are set up on the national traffic arteries, where the salt is lacking, the salt will be transferred there. In addition, smuggling investigations should be set up to crack down on smuggling salt dealers.

In this way, the imperial court has control over all stages of salt, which ultimately not only guarantees the collection of salt taxes, but also prevents the price of salt eaten by the people from being too high.

"How much is the salt tax?" Fang Xuanling asked.

"Take the most common sea salt as an example. Before the disaster, the price of rice was [-]:[-], and the highest price could reach [-]:[-]."

During the most stable and prosperous Kaihuang period, a bucket of rice often cost about [-] yuan, and ordinary salt at that time even cost [-] yuan a bucket, which was half cheaper than the price of rice.When it came to Daye, the price of rice rose steadily, while the price of salt rose slowly.

Because it is a disaster year, the price of grain is already abnormal. In Chang'an, half a meter costs [-] renminbi, and the price of salt is [-] renminbi per bucket.

Salt is much cheaper than rice, but this ratio is not normal.

As long as it is not a year of famine, salt is always more expensive than rice.

"Your Majesty, in fact, the cost of mining and drying salt is not high. A bucket of ten qian can already cover all the costs of mining, drying, processing, transportation and sales, and even includes a lot of profit."

Qin Lang planned to rectify the salt industry in an all-round way. The first thing was to nationalize the salt farms. Those merchants who wanted to produce salt had to first apply to the imperial court to contract the salt farms, and then they had to obtain licenses and operating permits.The imperial court levied contract fees for their saltworks according to their output.

In addition, all salt produced can only be sold to the imperial court.

"The imperial court buys salt at the basic price of 110 renminbi per bucket of salt, and then increases the tax by [-] renminbi, and sells it to salt merchants at [-] renminbi per bucket of salt."

A book of ten articles, plus a tax of one hundred.

This tax rate made Li Shimin take a deep breath.

Dai Zhou and many other ministers were extremely opposed to it, thinking it was too absurd, and it was simply a money grab.

"The purchase price of a bucket of salt is ten renminbi, and the salt tax is 110 renminbi. Then the salt merchants will have to pay for the transportation and sales, and the price will definitely increase. How much will it cost in the hands of the common people?"

Qin Lang said bluntly, "Businessmen must want to make money. I guess they will sell it for around 130 to [-]."

"It costs ten yuan for a bucket of salt, but the common people buy salt for 150 yuan for a bucket of salt?"

Qin Lang didn't take it seriously, "Mr. Dai, please also pay attention. The imperial court does not monopolize or tax the salt industry, but it doesn't care about the salt industry. The resulting situation is that the salt market is chaotic and disorderly. Now the price of salt is as high as a hundred dollars, and the common people eat it. The salt money, but the imperial court didn’t get any benefits, and the merchants got it all, and even the salt that many common people bought was of poor quality.”

"And the imperial court controls it, and after collecting taxes, it can also be used for the people. Although the price of salt bought by the common people is a bit high, the imperial court can control the quality of salt through various links of supervision, so as to crack down on counterfeit and inferior salt."

Salt is actually a poll tax in disguise, which of the emperor's ministers would not understand it!
Qin Lang's land tax is essentially the tax per mu of land, and the tax is levied per mu of land. Now there is a salt tax, which is actually a tax per head again.

By the way, a salt farm tax was levied on the owners of the salt farms, and it was even possible that Qin Lang would have to collect a commercial tax on the salt merchants again.

The common people have to bear the high salt price of more than 100 yuan a bucket, but on the other hand, the imperial court may get tens of millions of salt taxes a year.

Comparing the two sides, the emperor couldn't help being shaken.

The price of salt is high, but there is no tax on the price of salt, and the common people eat salt worth hundreds of dollars a bucket.

The price Qin Lang set was not insane, it was based on the actual situation and needs, and he took an intermediate value. After all, the current price of salt is more than a hundred dollars, but it must be much higher than normal years.

The specific gravity of salt is relatively high, and a bucket of salt is converted into about 21 catties in the Tang Dynasty. Then, based on the final market price of [-] buckets, the actual cost of buying salt for the common people is about [-] Wen per catty, and the imperial court salt tax per catty About five bucks off.

Much cheaper than pork.

Compared with the salt tax and salt price after the mid-Tang Dynasty in history, and the salt tax and salt price in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties later, it is much lower.We must know that the average salt tax in the Song Dynasty reached about 23 Wen per catty, and before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the salt tax reached a high of 3000 million taels of silver a year.

What Qin Lang promised to the emperor was that after the implementation of the salt monopoly system, the imperial court would be able to control the salt market so that it would not be chaotic and its ups and downs would be disorderly.

Salt is a necessity, as is taxation.

Salt worth six or seven renminbi a catty, as long as the quality is not short of a catty or adulterated, the common people can still afford it.After all, although salt is expensive, the amount consumed is small.

An adult man may eat six or seven stones of grain a year, but at most ten catties of salt.

In a good year, the normal price of grain should be about [-] Wen a bucket, a stone of rice is two hundred dollars, and a stone of rice can be exchanged for about [-] catties of salt. This ratio is still lower than the salt price in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are many.

But the newly added salt tax is huge for the Tang court, and it may far exceed the court's current income from rent adjustment and taxation.

The imperial court is the biggest beneficiary here, so who is the loser?

Naturally, the owners of the salt farms, and the salt merchants will also cut their profits greatly because of the restrictions, and all the salt farm owners and salt merchants are actually controlled by the nobles and tyrants at this time, that is to say, Qin Lang This knife actually cuts the entire current interest group.

After the salt monopoly, there will definitely be iron monopoly, wine monopoly, tea monopoly and other monopoly, and there will be mining taxes such as gold, silver, copper and iron to keep up.

Behind these industries are actually the same group of people.

Why did the Sui Dynasty stop salt and iron and not levy mining taxes?In fact, after Yang Jian usurped the throne, he desperately needed to obtain the compromise supported by the nobles, gentry and powerful groups. If Yang Jian did not collect taxes, it would be equivalent to giving them many benefits in disguise, especially the tax system of rent and mediocrity, which is actually comprehensive. A policy of giving up profits to these aristocratic bureaucrats.

Under this compromise, Yang Jian received the support of all parties, quickly usurped the world of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, created and stabilized the Sui Empire, and won the prosperity of the first emperor.

But now, Qin Lang raised a knife and challenged this behemoth.

However, behind him is today's Li Shimin.

(End of this chapter)