Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 393 Commercial Tax Reform
The days passed quickly, and gradually September passed by and entered October. After the provincial and township examinations in mid-September, the atmosphere of the imperial examination in Guangzhou did not drop, but became more intense.

The second year of Longwu was still a year of turbulence and constant changes. After the imperial court moved to Guangzhou, the changes in central Fujian caused huge shocks in Nanming, and gradually stabilized.

Emperor Longwu had the support of the three governors of Nanyang, He Tengjiao, Jiangxi Wanji, and Wang Yan, and his strength was far stronger than that of Lu and Gui.

Although the envoys to Zhaoqing sent back news that King Gui did not abdicate the Gui Fan and moved back to Guilin, but both the Gui Fan and the Lu Fan expressed that they would send envoys to Guangzhou to discuss the future development of the Southern Ming Dynasty and decide on the relationship between the emperor and the Lu Fan. The relationship between the two supervisors.

Wang Yan was still very busy every day during this month. Originally, he promised Xu Yanyan that when his parents arrived, he would salute her, but it turned out that he couldn't handle it because of the court affairs.

At this time, in the palace, Emperor Longwu, Wang Yan and other ministers were still discussing fiercely, but the root of the problem was still an old problem, the court had no money.

The current disaster of Nanming was buried from the time of Taizu. Taizu was born in a humble family, started his fortune in a peasant uprising, and finally became emperor, creating the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. Taizu's background and experience determined his governance. Strategy.

The attitude of the Ming Dynasty between farmers and merchants, and the increasingly powerful imperial staff and courtiers since Wanli, made the civil servants and the emperor alienated, and indirectly caused the gentry to be indifferent to the court, which also determined the current financial distress of the court.

In the Ming Dynasty, the status of merchants was very low. Although merchants were rich, they had no power, so they tried every means to closely integrate with scholars who could grasp public opinion and future government affairs.

Some businessmen married scholars, subsidized scholars, invested huge investment in cultivating scholars, bribed bureaucrats, or bureaucrats simply found their own agents to engage in huge-profit industry and commerce.

The world is full of goodwill, and the world is all good.

The salary of the Ming Dynasty was so pitifully small that it was basically unable to meet the expenses of officials. In order to obtain spokespersons in the imperial court, the big merchants and the bureaucrats quickly became one with each other in order to obtain benefits.

Within the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party combined with the big merchants in the south of the Yangtze River to form a major force, and the Zhejiang Party combined with smuggling merchants formed another major force.

The formation of these two forces, one spoke well for the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and opposed the collection of commercial taxes, and the other spoke for the smuggling group and opposed the opening of the sea.

As for Shanxi merchants, they also want to find a spokesperson in the court, but in Shanxi, the culture is far better than that of Jiangnan, where there are many talents. At the end of Ming Dynasty, they directly smuggled and exported, secretly communicated with Mongolia and Manchuria, betrayed Ming Dynasty, and supported foreigners to rule the Central Plains.

In the last years of Chongzhen, after more than 270 years of development in the Ming Dynasty, various problems have been accumulated. The big landlords avoid taxes by donating or taking a test for fame. The nobles and bureaucratic landlords plundered and plundered, and there were fewer and fewer self-cultivating farmers who could provide taxes for the court.

At this time, the country had to increase taxes due to the military pressure of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Between the commercial tax and the agricultural tax, Donglin naturally spoke for Jiangnan. There were few officials in the central and northwest, so naturally they could not compete with Donglin, so that the court could not open up money. , can only increase the agricultural tax.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were fewer and fewer self-cultivated farmers paying taxes on the one hand, and more and more taxes on the other. Into a vicious circle, and even the collapse of society.

This is the experience and lessons Wang Yan summed up from the reign of Chongzhen. He stood in the center of the hall and saluted the emperor: "Your Majesty, in the current situation, the increase in agricultural tax will undoubtedly repeat the same mistakes. I believe that commercial tax reform is imperative!"

After Wang Yan finished speaking, Gu Yuanjing, who had just joined the cabinet, objected: "Your Majesty, for the past 270 years of the Ming Dynasty, commercial taxes have always been like this. The law of the ancestors cannot be changed. The current increase in commercial taxes can only be used to gain profits from the people and lose money." People's hearts."

After Wang Yan entered Guangdong, Gu Yuanjing was marginalized, and the real power basically fell into the hands of Su Guansheng. He had already lost power, but he sided with the pro-Tang faction during the defense war in Guangzhou. As a result, he was able to enter the cabinet and take power.

Gu Yuanjing has been an official in Guangdong for many years and has close ties with merchants and gentry in Guangnan, so he naturally opposed the tax increase.

In the past month, Wang Yan has found out the business information in Guangzhou Chengnei, and contacted a group of businessmen, which made his reform ideas more and more clear.

The short-sightedness of the Jiangnan gentry and the Donglin Party resulted in Jiangnan being ravaged by the Qing soldiers, the economy and people's livelihood were in decline, and taxes were missed for more than ten years.

Enlightened merchants and gentry must reflect on this and look for a new spokesperson who can protect their interests. Wang Yan is ready to take advantage of the situation. Although he advocates tax increases, the essence is for a more long-term and healthy development of business.

Under his reform, enlightened businessmen and gentry will naturally gather behind him, but those profiteers and evil gentry who only care about their own interests, are insatiable, and do not want to contribute to the court will also be ruthlessly eradicated.

After Gu Yuanjing finished speaking, Wang Yan took out a memorial from his official robe, and presented it to Emperor Longwu: "Your Majesty, this is the rebel Hong Chengchou, the governor of the south of the Yangtze River in the Qing court, written by the spies of the Tiandihui to the captives. One of Ergun's memorials suggesting the pacification of the world, one of which terrified the ministers. Hong Ni suggested that the chieftain should be cut off from the land of the Ming clan, and the land of the Ming clan should be given to the people who cultivated it. Gather people's hearts. Previously, the northern captives had already reduced taxes and collected land taxes according to the standards of the Wanli period. Now they use land to buy people's hearts. Your Majesty, all the ministers, I will increase the land tax. Only people will lose their minds! ~"

The land issue was one of the biggest problems of the Ming Dynasty. Every change of dynasty in Chinese history was basically a redistribution of land.

After the Qing court entered the customs, enclosing land, investing in it, and seizing a large amount of official land and civilian land in the Ming Dynasty was a complete tyranny. However, with the expansion of the Qing court's conquest area and the massacre of a large number of Han people, it was time for the third period after entering the customs. In [-], the problem of too many people and little land that plagued the Ming Dynasty turned into a problem of too many people and little land for the Qing court, and the land problem was immediately resolved.

Emperor Longwu looked at Zhezi, and his face was gloomy for a while. He knew how much land the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty occupied.

At this time, Emperor Longwu handed over the memorial to Zuo Maodi, and let several great scholars circulate it, and then said: "The strategy Hong Ni offered for the northern captives is really sinister. As for the agricultural tax, according to Wang Qing's words, Never again. The Qing family will talk about the reform method of commercial taxation, and today all the loves must finalize the general plan."

Hong Chengchou's memorial to the Qing court made Emperor Longwu feel urgent, and made him feel that the longer the time dragged on, the more elusive his hope of recovering the country would be.

Seeing this, Gu Yuanjing and other officials who opposed the increase of business tax stopped speaking, while Wang Yan said: "Your Majesty, the minister's reform strategy, in addition to adjusting tax rates and strictly investigating tax evasion, also encourages business. Reduce the types of taxes and simplify them; secondly, abolish checkpoints to prevent bureaucrats from exploiting and facilitate the circulation of goods; finally, for merchants who pay more taxes, they should be rewarded with status, and the decree that merchants can only wear civilian clothes should be abolished."

"The Complete Book of Agriculture.Volume 14 states that in the [-]th year of Hongwu: "The Supreme People's Government emphasized the importance of the basics and suppressed the end, and ordered that farmers' families were allowed to wear silk cloth, and merchants' families were only allowed to wear cloth. Even if one of the farmers' families was a merchant, they were not allowed to wear gauze. "That is to say, it is illegal for merchants to wear silk clothes, and they can only wear common clothes.

This law basically existed in name only, and no one obeyed it. However, Wang Yan proposed that it be abolished, but it was a signal to the businessmen that the imperial court would change the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business.

(Thanks to Shushanqin for the five hundred book coins, thanks to Yuedong Woxin for the gift and reward, and thanks to Chu Muyu, Uncle Chun for the monthly pass. It’s the end of the month. Everyone vote for me. Try to change it tomorrow .)
(End of this chapter)