Bachelor

Chapter 375 Finished Writing
Sun Dan’s idea actually comes from the three economic reforms in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty: the gentry is allocated to the mu, the fire consumption is returned to the public, and the gentry pays food and errands together.

Although the times are different, the specific circumstances are also different.

But in terms of the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, there are many similarities compared with the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong heydays.

The same is the strength of the country, the same domestic prosperity, and the same is that the central government has made a big mistake and fell into a severe crisis.

It's just that the national financial crisis in the Yongzheng year was due to Kangxi's great success and extravagance, so that he handed over a rotten treasury to Yongzheng.Yongzheng had no choice but to vigorously promote reforms and reverse the decline of the country's finances in one fell swoop.However, the emptiness of the treasury in the Ming Dynasty is different. Emperor Wuzong used troops every year, and the central government's taxation policy was chaotic.If the financial crisis of the Qing Dynasty was caused by man-made disasters, then that of the Ming Dynasty was caused by the fact that the old financial system was not suitable for the emerging capitalism.

Each has its own differences, and there are also places where they can learn from each other.

Of course, the Qing Dynasty's Huoxue Guigong was based on the silver standard, and national taxation has been completely monetized.

Today's Ming Dynasty is still implementing taxation in kind, and the monetization tax system has only just begun to rise.

The reason why Sun Dan made such a point is that even without the vigorous promotion of the central government, some people in the local government realized that it would be too troublesome to collect land tax, property tax and corvee separately, and it was not easy to manage, and it was easy to fall into chaos and waste.For example, if you collect tax in kind in the south, you have collected a lot of oranges, which are worth only a penny, but when they are put into storage, the transportation and labor costs have already greatly exceeded a penny.The excess has to be subsidized by the local government, and the oranges put into storage have already rotted due to the long delay on the road.The country spent such a high cost, but got a rotten orange in the end. Such a result has to make people speechless.

Therefore, in fact, local governments, especially at the level of chief envoys, some chief envoys have clearly stipulated that when officials below pay taxes in kind, if they encounter those that are not easy to keep, they will directly pay money.

From this point of view, a whip method proposed by Sun Dan years ago has actually been secretly implemented locally. This is a historical choice.Even if Sun Dan doesn't bring it up, there will be Li Dan and Zhang Dan in the future.There will be Zhang Juzheng in Wanli, even if there is no Zhang Juzheng, there will be Li Juzheng.

The inevitability of history cannot be resisted by humans.

However, all the local government collects is scattered silver, which needs to be melted again when it is handed over to the national treasury, and cast into 50 taels of silver bars or silver ingots, and the weight must be lost in the process.Therefore, when collecting silver, the government deliberately collected two cents more from the people as fire consumption.This has virtually increased the burden on the common people and also increased the workload of officials.After all, there were not many corrupt officials like bastards among the officials in the mid-Ming Dynasty. Many officials still had integrity, and they were not very willing to do such disturbing things.As a result, invisibly, local officials are not very interested in the monetization tax reform proposed by Sun Dan.

The policy question Sun Dan wrote in the examination room now is to the effect that if cash tax is levied, the state will bear this part of the fire consumption, and it will be included as the cost of cash collection, which will be arranged by the local officials themselves. As a local official's money to support honesty.

Forget it, in a county, the annual summer tax and autumn tax add up to at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. Calculated by two cents of loss, there are also two to three hundred taels, and the sum of the government and provincial levels is even more.

This money should be enough for officials to cover their expenses for a year.

In this way, seeing the actual benefits, the officials were naturally motivated to collect cash taxes, and Sun Dan and the emperor's tax reform could be carried out smoothly.

Furthermore, with this sum of money to maintain integrity, the officials have enough food and clothing, and they are much gentler when they scrape the land.Isn't the problem of official administration solved?

Sun Dan studied dialectical materialism. He didn't think it was a good solution to government and financial problems once and for all, but it was the most suitable for now.

From the moment Sun Dan started to write the composition, the emperor stood beside him and watched every word, engrossed.

There was also a shock in his heart. Generally speaking, although Emperor Jiajing had very bad historical records, he was still a British lord.At least in terms of political wisdom, he is no less than Taizu and Chengzu, otherwise there would be no prosperity in the later Wanli year.It's just that the Ming Dynasty died in the Qing Dynasty, and the historians of the Qing Dynasty naturally wanted to vigorously discredit the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, during the two to three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, there was not a single good person in more than a dozen generations of monarchs—all of them were written as buffoons by Zhang Tingyu, Liu Luoguo, and Ji Yun, the academicians in Kang Yongnian. ——This is also a helpless thing.

The emperor only glanced at Sun Dan's article, and immediately realized the meaning of it.

Sun Dan used the fire consumption of money as a bait. On the surface, he was giving money to officials, but in fact he was implementing a new tax law.Moreover, through this point, the imperial court can also accept the hearts of officials all over the world, which is also of great benefit to stabilizing its position as the new monarch.

"Sure enough, he's a conspirator. This Sun Dan really counts people's hearts to the extreme!" Emperor Jiajing took a breath of air, but felt excited in his heart.As long as he can accept the hearts of the bureaucrats all over the world, there shouldn't be much resistance to his father's imperial examination questions, right?
Sun Dan is indeed the person I need the most!
At this moment, the emperor can only wish to give this article to Mr. Yang Ge to read it.

The emperor stood beside Sun Dan and looked at the words written by Sun Dan motionlessly. All the candidates in the field respected, feared and admired him. Some even thought that even the emperor was attracted by Sun Jingyuan's article. This Sun Dan Sure enough, he is not a person who has earned his fame, no wonder he won the first name of the Huiyuan.It seems that he is the number one scholar in the imperial examination.Other candidates can only compete for the second place and third place.

Fortunately, Sun Dan finished writing the article soon.

Sun Dan's policy argument is emotional and well-organized, but it is only more than 600 words, and he has written it in a short time.

Because the emperor was standing beside him, Sun Dan didn't want to be presumptuous, so he just gently put the pen on the pen holder, got up and handed the paper over.

Looking at the table again, the candle that the emperor personally handed over to him only burned off a section of nail length.

The sky outside the Palace of Preserving Harmony was still dark and not bright, which was around five o'clock in the morning.

It took only half an hour for Sun Dan to finish the exam questions.

Seeing that he handed in the paper so quickly, and the emperor looked satisfied, everyone was moved: a famous scholar is a famous scholar, such as the palace examination, for him, it is like writing and composition, how can he be so casual?
Even the mature and prudent Yang Tinghe stood up in surprise.

(End of this chapter)