The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 375 Salt Tax and Invoice

"That's very good." Chen Hongmi nodded and said, "I guess His Highness will return in two hours."

"Half an hour." Zheng Guangying resentfully withdrew his hand from touching the dice.

Gu Yanwu thought for a while, and said: "Then let me guess an hour." After he finished speaking, he looked at Wang Laixian, "Where is Brother Zhengnan?"

Wang Laixian was about to say a few words casually, but suddenly his eyelids raised, his ears held his breath slightly, and then a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "I think His Highness will be here soon."

Sure enough, after only a cup of tea, Yinli Sheren came to spread the word, saying that His Royal Highness the Assistant Prince had returned to the residence.

Wang Laixian led a thin middle-aged man to the main hall of the palace with his subordinates under the eyes of everyone.

Seeing the assistant king face to face, the two hurriedly knelt down and saluted first, after Zhu Linmi helped them up, Wang Laixian said: "Your Highness once ordered his subordinates to invite Mr. Lizhou into the court, and it is fortunate that this subordinate did not disgrace his life." The person on the side indicated, "This is it."

Mr. Lizhou?Just as Zhu Linmei was surprised, the thin middle-aged man bowed deeply, "Student Huang Zongxi has heard of His Highness's reputation for a long time. He expelled the Tartars from the north, eliminated Tang Ni from within, and restored the southwest. Now that His Highness is calling, how dare the student not come. "

It turned out to be Huang Zongxi!Zhu Linmi was very happy, she didn't expect that Wang Laishian would recruit Huang Zongxi, who was one of the three great masters in the late Ming Dynasty, so quickly, and the relationship between the two was really unusual.

It happened that he was preparing to open a new Fujing Treaty Port and set up the Fujing Customs Department. Huang Zongxi was familiar with tax laws, economics, and a master of Western studies, so he was the best candidate to preside over the Fujing Customs Department.When the Ministry of Commerce is established in the future, he can take advantage of the situation and let him take charge of the Ministry of Commerce to give an overview of maritime trade matters.

"Mr. Wang has done a great job this time."

He hurriedly ordered them to watch the seats and serve tea, without going around in circles, he directly said that Huang Zongxi was appointed as the head of the Fujing Customs Department.

Huang Zongxi was not very familiar with the "Department of Customs". After further inquiry, he found out that this was a department responsible for supervising ships and goods entering and leaving Ming Dynasty, collecting taxes and fees according to the law, and also responsible for arresting smuggling.

At first, he thought that this was just a city secretary with a little more power and responsibility, and secretly thought that it would be a waste of his own talents to take up such a small position.But when he heard Zhu Linmin continue to talk about the huge maritime trade plan, his eyes lit up immediately.

According to what His Highness said, Daming will gradually open all coastal ports to trade with the barbarians, and will organize hundreds of merchant ships to sell a large amount of goods to various countries, and then transport all kinds of products back to Daming.

He has a good understanding of Western countries, knowing that they are based on the sea, and each of them makes a lot of money.In fact, in his early years, he also suggested to the imperial court to widen the sea route, learn from the western barbarians to enrich the country with business, but he never got the attention of the imperial court.

He had thought many times that if the Chongzhen Dynasty could organize a fleet of ships to trade, instead of going to Europe, he would only go to Nanyang a few times, and the Liaodong army would not be paid for several years in those days, and Jianlu may still be blocked from the pass.

Huang Zongxi immediately cheered up and expressed some of his thoughts on this customs department, "...to do business with barbarians, the most careful smuggling, or opening hidden compartments in the ship, or loading and unloading goods outside the port. As far as the students know, only In the Yuegang area, the annual trade with Hongyi is no less than tens of millions of taels, but the ship tax income of the city ship company is only a few thousand taels a month. The reason is that most of them are smugglers and entrainers. The ship company does not get half of the tax money...

"As for the solution, it should be possible to widely distribute private patrol ships and monitor the coast...supplemented by weighing the weight of the ship and comparing it with the weight of the cargo. Anyone who does not have a tax certificate will be severely punished..."

Many of these matters were mentioned in his memorial to the imperial court to open the sea route, so he almost opened his mouth and said many valuable suggestions in succession.Zhu Linmi couldn't help nodding in her heart, it seemed that Huang Zongxi did have real talents and learning, and he should be relieved to be entrusted to him by the Ministry of Commerce in the future.

At the end, Huang Zongxi was a little worried and said: "It's just that the student has not made an inch of merit in the imperial court, and he might not be convinced by the sudden promotion to the fifth-rank position. Maybe he can be the secretary of the customs department first, and then wait for the evaluation and performance..."

Zhu Linming raised her hand to interrupt him and said, "There is an important matter right now. I originally planned to let Zheng Guangying do it, but it is more appropriate to let Mr. Lizhou do it. If it is done well, it will be a great achievement."

"Please also express your Highness."

"Rectify the salt tax." Zhu Lin said, "Previously, our government decreed not to go out of Jiangxi and Fujian, so that salt smuggling caused disasters in various places. Especially in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, there are still salt merchants holding the salt distributed by Ding Kuichu and Sha Dingzhou. Selling salt. It is Jiangxi. Due to the influx of illegal salt from all over the country, the business of serious salt merchants is deserted.

"During the reign of Chongzhen, the annual salt tax income in these southern regions was nearly 70 taels, but now it is only 3000 to [-] taels a month.

"Even 70 taels a year is far from enough. I have calculated that the registered population of the southern provinces is more than ten million. Each person eats ten catties of salt every year, and the salt tax is six taels. If the tax is paid every year, it should be at least More than 220 million taels. This is not counting refugees who have left their nationality."

A few days ago, he promised Yang Tinglin in the court to increase the monthly income of the household department by 13 taels.Among them, more than 3 taels were allocated by the Propaganda Department, about 2 taels came from the newly added "luxury goods" business, and the rest fell on the salt tax.

"I plan to ask you to be an imperial envoy to inspect the salt, and to handle the salt tax in all provinces."

Huang Zongxi got up immediately, bowed solemnly and said: "Your Majesty will do his best to live up to His Highness's expectations!"

"By the way, we can use this time to rectify the salt tax, and we can also try a new policy." Zhu Linmi asked someone to fetch a pen and paper, and said while drawing, "This item is called 'invoice', which is uniformly produced by the Ministry of Households, and it is up to you for the time being." To hand out. That's about it.

"The ticket has a serial number, and also marks the name of the merchant, type of goods sold, weight, unit price, total price, person who handled it, date, signature, etc., and will be issued to the salt merchants together with Yanyin at that time.

"When merchants sell salt, they take an invoice and hand it over to the buyer together with the goods. When it comes to taxation, only the invoice is used as evidence. Those who sell salt without an invoice are considered private salt."

Seeing Huang Zongxi's bewildered face, he had to patiently explain how the merchants bought the ticket book, why the ticket book had consecutive numbers, how to issue the invoice when selling goods, how to use the ticket to write off the account when collecting taxes, and so on.

The more Huang Zongxi heard it, the more surprised he was, he repeatedly called "a good way", and then sighed in admiration: "Your Highness, this method is wonderful. If it is widely implemented, the imperial court's taxes can be doubled at least!"

Zhu Linmi was too embarrassed to say that she invented it by herself, so she coughed dryly and said, "Hey, oh, I read this from an isolated ancient book." Before Huang Zongxi asked where the book was going, he hurriedly said, "This book traveled south with the late emperor, and was destroyed on the way."

Huang Zongxi showed regret, and confronted the assistant king about the details of the salt tax rectification. Remembering that there were still many people waiting in the side hall, he got up and left.

Zhu Linming thought for a while, and then instructed: "The matter of tax collection will not be easy. I will ask Zheng Guangying to draw some Jinyiwei manpower to listen to you. But you must also remember to pay attention to evidence in everything, and don't use lynchings rashly.

"But never let a profiteer go!"

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(End of this chapter)