Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1800 Accounting ([-])

The next day's meeting lasted until the afternoon.

After the meeting was over, Wang Yan, who seemed to be in a good mood, invited everyone to board a three-story building located in the northeast corner of the nursing home——Wanghu Building, intending to have a banquet here.

Wanghu Building was first built in 1660, and consumed a lot of building materials such as century-old wood, bluestone, and strip bricks. At one time, Dongfang Hotel Group Company had a toothache. After all, they were also renovating at that time, including Shanhou County Nursing Home, Iraq Many industries, including the Nursing Home in Gua Su County and the Hue Hotel, are under considerable financial pressure.However, Wanghu Tower was finally built and officially opened to the public in 1663, becoming one of the main choices for banquets in the minds of successful businessmen in China.

There were actually not many participants in today's banquet, but there were only seven or eight people including Wang Yan and Huang Hanhua, and they just made up a table.The dishes on the table were neither bad nor bad, the most conspicuous dishes were obviously made of kangaroos imported from Australia, which made everyone a little pale. How can you eat kangaroo meat?

But Wang Yan didn't change his face, the chopsticks rained down like rain, he had already eaten more than ten chopsticks in a glass of wine.He smacked his mouth while eating, shaking his head, with a look of nostalgia on his face, which made one wonder that the Dongfang Hotel bought so many pickled kangaroo meat and dried kangaroo meat all at once, could it be the master's handwriting ?

"The tax reform work conference is finally over today, and the result is relatively satisfactory. Everyone has no opinion." After eating a few pieces of kangaroo meat, Wang Yan put down the chopsticks in his hand, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and turned to everyone present. The man said: "These are the joint efforts of all of you. My old Wang is not blind yet, and I understand everything. In the future, as long as you work together and work hard together, my old Wang will always protect you. You have a good future and don't let you suffer That's right."

In fact, after the so-called third tax reform plan was formulated, it has been circulated among several high-level bosses and relevant counterpart cadres. Everyone’s opinions have already been mentioned, and naturally there is nothing to mention. Opinions, so this draft has basically been finalized, and the next stage will be trial implementation. At today's meeting, some people below suddenly proposed whether to include coal, red bricks, cement, lime, rice and other materials in the unified tax As a result of the expropriation, all the people at the meeting were noisy, and finally nothing happened. Of course, this is all a small episode and does not affect the overall situation.

But then again, things like coal, building materials, and rice are actually widely used in the Eastern China Republic.Especially in places like the eastern prairie, where the population is large and the economy is developed, but there is a shortage of firewood. Whether it is industrial production or the daily needs of the people, they all need to buy coal products. If a unified special tax is levied, the income will be very high of.The same is true for building materials. Nowadays, many private houses in old areas have been built for decades, and the trend of reconstruction and expansion is fierce. The demand for building materials is very large. Coupled with the boost of large-scale national infrastructure projects, the long-term prosperity of the building materials industry in the next few decades will probably be It is impossible to run away, so everyone proposed that in addition to timber, a unified tax should also be imposed on red bricks, cement, lime, etc., to benefit the country.

Wang Yan, Li Qing and others considered that they could collect more than 200 million additional taxes (considering the tax rebate factor, there may not be so much in reality) by introducing three new tax types at once. The government should be satisfied in a short time , and therefore decisively rejected.That is the matter of the next tax reform, which is implemented now, and the burden on the people will increase, so the opinions should not be small, although the taxation on the east coast is relatively low compared to other countries.

"The newly increased taxes of more than two million yuan have basically been calculated by the central government. Apart from spending half of it on health and education expenses and repaying old debts, basically all of it will be used for national defense. , Railways, highways, reservoirs, piers, forts, warehouses, and venues are under construction. Especially the military department, which has been having a hard time in recent years, is expected to make a lot of progress, especially after the news from Spain comes back.” Wang Yan poured another glass of wine on his own, tasting it as if no one else was around, and chatting some gossip. Of course, the level of these "gossips" seems to be too high, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are confidential.

Just now Wang Yan mentioned that a considerable part of the newly increased taxes will be used for national defense expenditures. This may not be particularly accurate, because according to the plan, nearly 80 yuan will be used for the navy, and the army will only get the same amount of money. It's only in the early 20s, and the difference in treatment is quite obvious.

It is said that since the East Coast Republic signed a peace agreement with the Kingdom of Portugal many years ago, it has set the tone of disarmament to save costs, and it has been slowly implemented in the following years.Today's army and navy on the east coast can be regarded as having been compressed to a certain extent. The army may be able to take advantage of the east wind of the Franco-Dutch war to "resurrect the dead" twice, and make up some battalions that are not full of staff. However, the navy has been living a hard life these years, and the annual military expenditure is barely enough to maintain. The sealed ships cannot be restored, the demobilized personnel cannot be re-conscripted, and the old ships cannot be renewed. But the mission is really not enough. It’s a small number. For many years, the three major fleets have been furious and have raised opinions one after another, but the results have not been good.

Fortunately, this time, the Navy finally got through the way, and got a relatively unanimous opinion from the Executive Committee. It can use the unified tax, inheritance tax and tobacco tax in 1681 and 1682 (the three new taxes in 1680 were only collected in some areas for trial). A total of 80 yuan in the liquor tax is used for the purchase of new ships, life extension and overhaul of old ships, inspection and maintenance of sealed warships (in preparation for joining active service), and recruitment of personnel, with a view to restoring the naval combat power to a certain level as soon as possible.After all, the navies of the continental European countries are developing rapidly now. Not only are the naval standing forces (mostly professional warships) of England and the United Provinces getting bigger and bigger, even the Kingdom of France, which was originally relatively lagging behind in development, has built new ones under the will of the monarch. The strength of the ship has improved rapidly, as evidenced by the last defeat of a Dutch squadron commanded by Druiter off the coast of Catalonia.

Therefore, based on this understanding, people on the east coast now have to increase investment in the navy, otherwise, who will safeguard your considerable overseas interests?By friendship with others?Sorry, this is the practice of a small country like Portugal, and the people on the east coast are not so decadent!

According to the Navy's plan, the "Executive Committee" class of warships that cost a lot of money will not be built for the time being. The existing "Executive Committee", "East Coast Man" and "Liberator" have been maintained. It's a big headache, why bother yourself?What's more, although this kind of warship has powerful firepower, but its center of gravity is too high, it is more dangerous when crossing the ocean, and it is quite difficult to fight in rough seas—such as the North Sea in Europe. The hull structure is also damaged, and the maintenance cost is really high. Not low, so it is not an exaggeration to say that the price/performance ratio is low.

What they really focused on was to redesign a double-deck battleship with sail and steam hybrid power, just like the original "August [-]th" class, to serve as the main force of each fleet.And in conjunction with this battleship, there are also a large number of "Jiqi"-class gunboats with a large tonnage-the modified ship also needs major changes, and the navy requires steam power, which requires redesigning the hull and center of gravity, which is not small- And the "Star" class light cruiser, so that it can be used as an auxiliary force in the decisive battle with the enemy's large fleet.

A plan of this scale naturally cost a lot of money, and it might not be enough to spread more than 100 million yuan, because it was almost equivalent to rebuilding half of the fleet, and the cost was naturally not a small amount.You must know that during the second Anglo-Dutch war that year, the Dutch spent a winter preparing their fleet on their already good basis (refitting ships, adding weapons, recruiting personnel, training, etc.), and it took a short while. Lost more than 1000 million dong.Continued investment during the subsequent war, and finally spent more than 1000 million silver dollars on the east coast to make the fleet stronger, and finally defeated the British, gaining the hegemony of the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

The navy on the east coast has let the horses go to Nanshan these years. The warships are old and retreating, and some ships are missing due to shipwrecks. The strength has dropped a lot. The previous policy of minor repairs and repairs can no longer be maintained. It is necessary to invest heavily, otherwise the enemy will advance and we will retreat, and overseas interests will not be guaranteed.

"In the past, when our income was only two or three million yuan, we felt that the money was not enough. Later, the government's fiscal revenue exceeded 300 million yuan, which was a huge increase compared to before. In the end, it was still not enough, and it was even to the point of borrowing money for construction. It's really unbelievable. It's good now, the fiscal revenue is more than 1000 million yuan, but why are there still so many debts and no money to use? The stalls in our country are getting bigger and bigger, and the bigger the place, the more places to spend money. When you have enough money, you can only borrow money, and when the debt reaches a certain level and you gradually can’t afford the principal and interest of the debt, you can only increase taxes, which is really helpless when you think about it.” Hearing Wang Yan talk about the country’s increasing expenditure, Huang Hanhua Feeling something in his heart, he sighed and said.

"In the past 20 years, the increase in government expenditures in various countries has become a significant and common fact. There is no doubt about it. The reason for this is probably because of the development of the times. Regardless of whether the central government or local governments in various countries have new positions or increased functions, that is, the old The execution of existing duties and new duties is also more efficient and complete than before. Therefore, the daily expansion of public expenditure is not unique to our country." Huang Hanhua's confidant, the director of the General Administration of Taxation, and the man with glasses also said at this time After opening his mouth, he continued to say in that unique, half-literate tone: "The east bank is a newly created country, and it has only been fifty years since then. The country's use needs to increase faster than the countries in the old continent. Besides The policy of our country is based on the expansion of hegemony, which is quite different from the small countries that focus on peace policy. Military affairs, diplomacy, colonization, intelligence, judiciary, administration, health, education, construction, agriculture, industry and commerce, and public debt expenses, etc., are all-encompassing. It is becoming more and more numerous, and the increase in military affairs and civil affairs expenses is already clearly visible."

"Moreover, in recent years, the government's expenses have been increasing day by day, and the nature of social and economic activities has become increasingly complex. Therefore, the issue of the division of central and local expenditures has become important." The Nian official continued, seeming to be quite interested in the conversation: "Our country has a distinction between national tax and local tax. However, from my point of view, there are many things that need to be improved urgently, and it is also the direction of our efforts in the next stage. Last month, the General Administration of Taxation Set up a fiscal and taxation division committee to study the major plans for the division of central and local financial resources. The principle of division is consistent with the distribution of central and local duties. There are three general points: [-]. Matters that concern the interests of ordinary people should belong to the central government; matters that belong to the local governments Those who benefit should belong to the local government. [-]. Those that require advanced technology and intelligence should belong to the central government; those that require careful supervision should belong to the local government. [-]. Those that require consistent actions should belong to the central government; It should belong to the place."

"The distribution of duties is the key to the division of financial resources. According to this principle, various important expenditures are allocated, which are examples of central fiscal expenditures. One is military expenditures—security is the greatest interest of the whole society, so military expenditures are paid by the central government; two Judicial expenses—consistency of laws and unified execution are also in the interests of the whole society, so they are paid by the central government; three diplomatic expenses—diplomacy is the country as the main body, so no matter whether the central government’s diplomatic expenses or the local district or county’s diplomatic expenses should be paid All expenses are paid by the central government. Both the central government and the local government have them, such as police fees, education fees, etc. Among them, the establishment of the police is to maintain national order and is inherently in the interests of the public. It is more economical and easy to supervise, so the general solution is to be allocated by the central and local governments. For education, primary education has a close relationship with the place where it is located, and should be paid by the local government. However, education is related to the happiness of the whole society Therefore, higher education should be mostly sponsored by the central government. Those belonging to the local government, such as relief expenses, health expenses, and engineering expenses (except for large projects operated by the state), are mostly raised for local interests and should be local expenditures. However, under special circumstances If local governments are unable to do so due to excessive costs or other reasons, the central government can subsidize them as appropriate.”

The man with glasses talked a lot. In fact, the core content is that the central and local governments are going to reform the tax sharing system. This is also a main content of the third tax reform, and the possibility of perfect implementation in the next few years cannot be ruled out.In the past, the governments on the east coast had relatively weak local financial resources, and their powers were severely restricted. On the other hand, the central government took most of the taxes and public revenue into its pockets, so that the local governments had to rely on land finance to survive.Under such circumstances, it is not nonsense to talk about the promotion of primary education and medical and health services!

This time, the members of the executive committee have also made up their minds, feeling that the country has developed to the present, with more than 400 million people, and the original fiscal and taxation system is gradually becoming unsuitable, and further reforms are needed, so the reform of the central and local tax sharing system is brewing ——On the basis of the past, return a certain percentage of funds from the central fiscal revenue to local governments, giving them greater financial resources to use limited funds more efficiently.

This kind of reform will undoubtedly have a great impact on the country's fiscal and taxation system, and the financial resources of the central government will become less. How much of the fiscal revenue of more than 2000 million yuan belongs to the central government and how much belongs to the local government? It's hard to say.However, such reforms are also necessary. As a country determined to build a civilized beacon society, the division of power, responsibility and financial resources between the central and local governments should be clear and unmistakable. It is abnormal to be as crude as before.

Therefore, the reform of the tax sharing system is imperative!

(End of this chapter)