national surname chiming

Chapter 478 Zhu Shuren's IQ is so high, how can he be satisfied with "spread into mu"

Facing Zhang Huangyan's helplessness, Zhu Shuren looked confident. He came from a well-known think tank in his previous life and had deep insights into the feasibility of fiscal and taxation reforms in history.

He will not simply copy the answers of later generations, and he will not blindly think that the later the method is, the better - it must also take into account the feasibility and technical infrastructure, some future tax calculation methods, if necessary hardware requirements If it's too high, you can't imitate Daming.

So after looking around at the other cabinet ministers in the audience, he solemnly announced his specific implementation measures:
"Don't you know that it is definitely more difficult to collect industrial and commercial tax from the production link than to collect lijin from the transaction and transportation link? Therefore, the original method of defining the production scale according to the number of looms in my Ming Dynasty and thus collecting the silk tax must of course continue. .

But this is far from enough. We must use this as a basis, weed out the old and bring forth the new, and draw inferences from one instance, so as to cover new industries as much as possible and give consideration to fairness. "

A few words from Zhu Shuren set the tone, and immediately aroused Zhang Huangyan's interest in Shi Kefa. They were really curious about what Zhu Shuren could do.

Zhu Shuren continued: "I just thought that the current small tax, or poll tax, can be abolished, and then re-enacted. In the future, farmers will not have to pay poll tax. The people who cultivate the land have already paid the land tax, rice, or grain tax. It's not fair to the poor to let them pay taxes on a per capita basis.

If only land tax is paid, those with more land will pay more, those with less land will pay less, and those without land will not pay. "

Zhu Shuren's words, if the people of later generations look at them with the eyes of the sky, they will definitely mistakenly think that he is going to engage in "spreading into the mu", but neither Shi Kefa nor Zhang Huangyan is a time traveler, so there is no preconceived prejudice.
But they also immediately realized that this method is good for social fairness and can prevent people with little land and no land from being severely exploited.

Just abolishing a tax with a very broad tax base for nothing will definitely have a serious impact on Daming's finances.But they didn't see where the point of increasing income by doing so was, and what other things could be leveraged.

As a matter of fact, Zhu Shuren's approach is of course very different from that of "Ping Ding Ru Mu" copied from many time-traveling novels - he has read many novels in his previous life, and he knows that writing Ding Ding Ru Mu is the lowest cost for readers to understand. The way of doing this can give people the impression that "the country will be awesome after such a change" without much explanation. As for how awesome it is, it doesn't matter anymore.

It's a pity that Zhu Shuren is not writing novels, he wants to govern the country, so he just "abolishes" not "spread", and the abolished is not all abolished, but only the "abolished" in the field of agriculture.

Times have changed!Today's Ming Dynasty has already started initial industrialization efforts, and it has been going on for nearly 20 years. The development of the handicraft industry is far from comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty in history.

It can be said that although the output value of the Ming Dynasty's handicraft industry today is not as high as that of industry, it can surpass the Qing Dynasty Yongzheng period and Qianlong period in history.

The steelmaking and metallurgy of Ming Dynasty is generally close to the level of later Western countries after the 1750s, which is at least 100 years ahead of the same period in history.The level of chemical engineering is approaching that of the nineteenth century in the West.

As for the textile industry, although there is no steam engine power, the Xiaowan spinning machine (Jenny machine) and the flying shuttle loom have been promoted for a full 24 years.

Now all the old-fashioned single-wheel spinning wheels in the Ming Dynasty are almost eliminated, except for a few remote and poor mountainous areas or places where barbarian chieftains live, the news is really blocked, and it is impossible to keep pace with the times.

The output of cotton yarn, silk reeling, cotton cloth and satin in the textile industry has more than tripled during the reign of Chongzhen. Basically, in more than 20 years, the entire national related output has directly quadrupled.

The cost and selling price of textiles have been significantly reduced by a notch, and it is easier for the common people to wear clothes, and the export of foreign sea trade has also become stronger. In history, the Qing Dynasty until the decades before the Crow War was the largest export It's still tea, not silk. This is mainly because the traditional Huaxia textile industry's production methods are too inefficient and the production capacity is too small, so the scale of the industry cannot increase.

At that time, it had been 80 years since the shuttle looms were produced in the West, and China was still weaving silk and satin on narrow hand looms.In contrast, the expansion of tea production capacity only requires land and does not require industrial strength, so that the growth of foreign trade in the Qing Dynasty from the Yong, Qian and Jia dynasties in history has always been concentrated on tea.

Now, with Zhu Shuren giving the people of Ming Dynasty 150 years of textile industry reform in advance, the amount of silk and other exports of Ming Dynasty in the future can definitely exceed that of tea.

Having said so much, it is nothing more than proving a problem - Daming now has a considerable industrialized population. It is estimated that there are not 1000 million people in the whole country, but there must be several million.

The non-agricultural productive population is already large enough to be considered as a separate tax base population category, and a set of rules should be specially formulated for it.

……

"So, my specific method is to register the population in the future - but it is not the classification of civilian households, military households and artisan households like the Emperor Taizu. The classification of Taizu was to require that generations should try not to change their careers in principle. of.

As for Daming's future citizenship, he can allow his descendants to change careers, and he can even give him a chance to change careers during his lifetime.Changing careers will not involve whether you can be an official in the imperial examination or other treatment, but it will only affect the way individuals pay taxes.

If it is a farmer's registration, it must be registered and registered as having a field. If you have a field, you will pay the grain according to the area of ​​the field, but you don't have to pay the small tax.If it is a business registration, then pay business head tax, but do not have to pay food.

From now on, all the food will be obtained from the population with agricultural registration, and all the money will be obtained from the population with industrial and commercial registration. The two lines of money and food will be separated from now on, and each will do its best. "

Zhu Shuren eloquently described his method of abolishing the agricultural tax, but not counting it as "split into the mu" in a very rigorous manner.

Zhang Huangyan and Shi Kefa were quite shocked when they heard it. At first glance, it seemed very simple. If it can be implemented, it will definitely not only protect the fairness of the people, not to exploit too much, but also guarantee the court's expenses—but I still feel that There are many loopholes, which are easy to be exploited.

Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng were also familiar with history books for the malpractices that arose in those years.Especially as Shi Kefa got older, he paid more attention to reading history in his later years. He studied the economic lessons of the past dynasties for many years.

As for other listeners with lower ranks, they are not qualified to react so quickly, they are still in a state of confusion.

Shi Kefa frowned and thought for a long time, then coughed and said:
"His Royal Highness's idea is very good, which shows the heart of benefiting the people and benefiting the country. I also know that everyone in the world may be greedy and self-interested, but His Highness will never have such thoughts in the new taxation policy. It will not be for the sake of My own people make money.

But since ancient times, there have been many people who do bad things with good intentions.Just a moment ago, the old man had already thought of a few questions: First, if the people were to be registered as citizens to pay taxes, should they actually assess their livelihoods as in Taizu's time, and then decide, or let them register by themselves?

According to His Highness, in order to prevent the common people from being caged, this nationality is not a death sentence, allowing the next generation of children to choose their own careers, and even myself allowed to go to the government to choose a career and change nationality once, so most of them are self-reported?

In this way, when the new law first came into effect, the common people may not know which one is actually more tax-burdened, and they will report according to their own occupations.

But in time, many years later, with the stable wages and food prices, the people will have a steelyard in their hearts. Wouldn’t they figure out whether the tax paid directly by the workers is more valuable, or the food handed in every year by the peasants is more valuable?

And once the common people compare their prices, there will inevitably be the kind of nationality that 'the tax burden borne is actually worth more', and a large number of population will be lost, and it will be replaced by the nationality 'the tax burden borne is actually worth less'.

For example, if food is expensive and the food they pay is higher than the tax they pay, the peasants will switch to work status. Even if they are still farming, they will sell the grain after the autumn harvest for money and pay the labor tax with money.

If the food is cheap, the situation will be reversed, and the work status will be transferred to the farmer status. Even those who are actually still working will buy food with their wages and pretend to be farmers to pay for food.

What's more, the money and food needed by the imperial court have their own fixed amounts. No matter if there is too much money and food is expensive, or if there is a lack of money and food is cheap, it will cause the court to be unable to turn around, and military food and military supplies may be affected.Could it be that in the end, there will be trouble until the Taizu Dynasty pays the salary in kind, or will Zhang Juzheng forcibly change his color? "

Don't think that the ancients didn't know the arbitrage space of the "dual price system", and how much rush and confusion it will bring.

People in the Ming Dynasty experienced the money shortage in the early years of the Ming Dynasty and had to pay in kind.I have also seen Zhang Juzheng's whipping method, because he had to pay silver, which caused the people to sell grain for silver, and the price of grain became cheaper due to stampede shipments.

Shi Kefa is very clear that as long as the people are allowed to arbitrage, the profiteers and the more cunning people among the people will surely benefit in the end, while the unresponsive and clumsy people will suffer, and the gap between the rich and the poor will widen over time.

As a pure Confucian under the traditional moral regulation, Shi Kefa hates all financial speculation and arbitrage space, and feels that as long as the new law introduces such factors, even if it can be simplified, it will introduce new disadvantages.

However, Zhu Shuren was not unhappy when he heard his worries. On the contrary, he felt that Daming still had practical talents.

He nodded gratifiedly: "Old Shi Ge said that it is true that the harm is right, it can be said that he is dedicated to serving the public, if there is no self-sufficiency, he will encourage him, and if he implements it in the future, he must always be vigilant.

Yes, as long as there is a difference in the burden of workers and peasants and there is room for arbitrage, the common people will inevitably have the desire to change their nationality to reduce their burden.Therefore, this method alone has established two insurances:

First, as I said just now, although the change of nationality is allowed, it does not mean that you can change it whenever you want, and each person can only change it once in a lifetime.If you are a follower who goes around, you will naturally be punished by the law of the country. "

Zhu Shuren was the first to point out that although the new law he wants to introduce seems to be somewhat similar to the "free choice of career" of later generations, in fact there are still thresholds.In the labor market of later generations, you can change jobs several times in your life, but in Daming, you can only change jobs once (workers are not restricted from changing jobs under different employers, but they can only switch jobs once).

Of course, don't ask him with the requirements of future generations. He is willing to let the people jump ship once in a lifetime. From a horizontal perspective, it is already a benevolent government.If you put it in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, not to mention that you can't change jobs for the rest of your life, your children and grandchildren will be restricted from changing careers.

Moreover, Zhu Shuren's restriction on changing his nationality does not involve the specific work of the other party. If he changes to a peasant's identity, he will not want to farm in the future, and he thinks it is worthwhile to work, so he can still work.

As long as you earn money from part-time work, you can buy food and pay the agricultural food tax when you come back. The country doesn't care what you do. The country only cares about taxes.

After hearing this, Shi Kefa realized that he had indeed missed the point just now. With this backup, he could ensure stability to a certain extent and curb speculative liquidity.

Zhu Shuren saw that Shi Kefa and everyone understood the beauty of it, and went on to say: "The second insurance is an independent decision. When implementing the new law, the amount of the tax and land tax must be strictly checked to ensure that the actual burden of the land tax is relatively large. Those with high taxes——

Gentlemen, don't think that this is exploiting the peasants and encouraging the workers. This is strictly planned.Because under the new law, those who can be recognized as farmers must have a field under their name.

If a family does not register to own land in the official yellow book, such as the former tenants and slaves, then even if they insist on farming, under the new law, they cannot be registered as farmers.

From now on, all hired farmers will be regarded as workers, as those who help the landlord to work and cultivate the land, and those who have the right of permanent tenancy will also be regarded as having the right to be permanently hired by the landlord to plant specific land.

In this way, the peasant registration is in fact equivalent to today's landlords and rich peasants, at least they are also middle and lower self-cultivators with certain fields of their own.

The work status includes not only the industrial and commercial craftsmen who actually work in the city, but also the extremely poor and landless peasants. This group is weaker than the landed people, and the imperial court should reduce their burden.

As long as it is ensured that those who own land have a higher tax burden, and those who own land cannot switch to work status arbitrage before selling the land, if they want to arbitrage in exchange for tax benefits, they must sell their excess land, then those who like to merge land People, because they are reluctant to sell their land, they cannot pretend to be their own. "

Zhu Shuren's new law must set the agricultural tax higher than the industrial tax or small tax, but there is no "oppression of the peasants", because the peasants here are actually landlords and self-cultivating farmers.And "landless peasants" are counted as workers.

In this way, linking the conditions for changing careers with whether you own land greatly limits speculation. Some people want to go to the tax depression, but they are reluctant to sell the land.

In fact, there is quite a "spreading into the mu" nature in this, and the land tax is all pressed on the head of the landed, but the action of "spreading" is not seen, and it is done more cleverly.

Shi Kefa and Zhang Huang thought over and over again, and couldn't help but admire. At least for now, other disadvantages are hard to say, but the opening to prevent "people frequently changing their nationality to arbitrage tax depression" is indeed blocked.

However, if this method is to be implemented, the resistance must be obvious.In the future, if families with a large amount of private land want to invest in industry and commerce, there will definitely be many more restrictions.
According to the classification of Zhu Shuren, if you pay the agricultural tax, and then go into business, but fail to pay the industrial and commercial tax truthfully, it must be illegal. It is considered tax evasion and will be thoroughly investigated by the court.

Therefore, if you want to be a big landlord in the future, you may not be able to be a capitalist, and you can only choose one.Or at least engage in "separation of family ownership", such as those wealthy families, separate a branch to hold land for the family, and another branch to operate business.

For those unsightly eaters, "need and want", and want to invest in everything and don't want to lose any opportunity, the stable players on the whole track will probably resent the court.But now the imperial court is very powerful, with so many beatings in other places, and absolute control over the handle of the knife, it is estimated that they will not be able to turn the tide.

(End of this chapter)