Chapter 136 The reaction of the Jiangnan gentry
Jiao Fang quickly said yes, and immediately finished drafting Song Kai's memorial and submitted it to the eunuch Gu Dayong and the eunuch Gu Dayong, the eunuch of the ceremony.
Zhu Houzhao also personally watched the memorial being criticized and distributed, and he couldn't help but smile a little at the corner of his mouth.
Because in Zhu Houzhao's impression, in the so-called era of great rule, basically such petitions for tax exemptions and reductions or even the abolition of the purchase of eunuchs and the taxation bureau would be granted.
For example, in the 18th year of Hongzhi, when Liu Jian and Wang Yue were in charge of the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, they accepted the request of the local government and exempted Suzhou Prefecture from taxation on the grounds that the floods in Suzhou Prefecture had caused too much damage to the people.
Now, this is the first time since Zhu Houzhao became emperor that he has refused a local petition to abolish the tax bureau, and he also wants to establish an additional tax bureau.
Zhu Houzhao didn't know how these Jiangnan gentry would accept this tax increase, which was called a cowardly act.
But Zhu Houzhao himself knew that the increase in the tax bureau would definitely be beneficial to him as the emperor.
Because these tax bureaus levy commercial taxes and consultation taxes, and these taxes are the main revenue of the Royal Taxation Bureau, and will also be the financial support for raising the Guards and developing industry and navigation in the future.
Although Zhu Houzhao now has tens of millions of gold and silver, he does not want to spend too much of it. He still wants to keep it as a reserve fund to prepare for future financial reforms. Therefore, he wants to support more guards. To be able to rely on these commercial taxes and consultation taxes, not only cannot they be reduced, but they must be increased.
Zhu Houzhao also considered whether increasing commercial taxes and questioning taxes would affect the development of the Ming Dynasty's commodity economy.
Not to mention that the current business tax in the Ming Dynasty itself is very low, let’s just say that the merchants in the Ming Dynasty basically just bought land, managed gardens, and bought slaves after making money. They even preferred to cast large silver ingots and bury them underground rather than expand the scale of production. It does not help social development at all, or even hinders it!
In this case, if Zhu Houzhao does not impose more business taxes, these businessmen will only turn most of the commercial profits into agricultural economy, or use them for enjoyment and squandering. It is better to let Zhu Houzhao own these profits, at least to expand the scale of production and increase Employment, solving the survival pressure of a large number of landless farmers, and avoiding the collapse of the dynasty due to land annexation.
When it comes to expanding production scale, Zhu Houzhao has not ignored the industrial and commercial development of Ming Dynasty.
However, at this time, the Ming Dynasty did not have much motivation for the development of industry and commerce from the court to the private sector. Even the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, the Shanxi merchants in the north, and the Huizhou merchants, the accumulation of wealth they pursued was only to become a greater Bureaucratic Landlord.
Therefore, the development of industry and commerce in Ming Dynasty could only be carried out by Emperor Zhu Houzhao himself.
It is precisely because of this that Zhu Houzhao established the Royal Bank from the beginning to achieve the purpose of controlling Daming's finance in the future, and used the Royal Taxation Bureau to collect commercial taxes from all over the world to accumulate capital for himself. At the same time, he used the Royal Industrial Company as the center to transfer capital to the development of industry. power, while Capital University serves as a place for theoretical knowledge discovery, talent pool and think tank for industrial development.
The Royal Bank uses the money from the Royal Taxation Bureau to lend money, allowing more merchants to have the opportunity to expand their operations, and preventing commercial activities from being concentrated only among the bureaucrats and the powerful class, and also promoting more people to get rich opportunities.
The Royal Taxation Bureau will use part of the income in the hands of the powerful bureaucrats who can still more easily obtain high business profits to lend to the common people who lack funds through the Royal Bank, or directly use it to invest in public undertakings in order to rob the rich, help the poor and alleviate the problem. the purpose of class conflict.
The Royal Industrial Company received funds through the Royal Bank and transformed the empire's wealth into real industrial products to benefit its descendants and powerful dynasty.
The same goes for Capital University. One creates industrial products and the other creates talents.
Unknowingly, Zhu Houzhao had begun to create his own capital empire.
Because he is the emperor, this capital is more like royal capital, but in fact it is similar to state-owned capital. After all, Zhu Houzhao is now the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and rules everything in the Ming Dynasty.
But this empire of capital is still in its preliminary stages.
The Royal Bank's large loan channels were basically only loans to the Ministry of Household Affairs, that is, the Ming Dynasty. The purpose was to make the Ming Dynasty more flexible and convenient in terms of tax collection and public utility expenditures. There was no need to wait for money and grain from the south to arrive before disaster relief could be provided. Go fix the wall.
The commercial tax revenue of the Royal Taxation Bureau has actually decreased but not increased compared to the past. Officials and gentry from all over the Ming Dynasty are trying to find ways to get the court to reduce commercial taxes. Naturally, they don't even think about raising commercial taxes.
The Royal Industrial Company has not yet established a complete industrial system, and it is not even considered an industrial group company now. It is just a workshop composed of several production workshops.
Moreover, Zhu Houzhao is not a qualified entrepreneur. He does whatever comes to mind in production, without any rules or market guidance. If it were not for the support of glass and soap, two best-selling products that are welfare for time travellers, Royal Industrial Company would only I'm afraid I won't be able to make a lot of profits.
Not to mention the Capital University, there are currently only about twenty students, and the total number of teachers and students in the school is less than thirty. This is the result of the intervention of Zhu Houzhao's imperial power.
The entire Royal West Garden is still as quiet as before after the establishment of the Capital University, and it is not as colorful as the later university towns.
But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and Zhu Houzhao is still working hard to build his capital empire.
At least he is still bringing new surprises to the world. For example, now, Zhu Houzhao has made chalk using substances such as calcium sulfate and calcium carbonate in a certain proportion, and at the same time he has had the first blackboard painted with pine black paint.
Although this does not seem to have much impact on the social life of the Ming Dynasty, it will at least stop Zhu Houzhao from holding charcoal pencils to lecture students at the Capital University, and it will also make knowledge exchange and learning at the Capital University more convenient.
What was really considered a major new project at this time was the agricultural research base built by Zhu Houzhao's engineering troops for the Capital University.
Among them, the most eye-catching ones are the vast glass greenhouse and the ten acres of fertile land newly reclaimed by the Capital University. These are the bases that the Secretary of the Capital University, Yan Song, is responsible for. He is currently holding the corn brought by Jin Yiwei from the south. Under the guidance of Zhu Houzhao, corn seedlings began to be cultivated.
Because there is a glass shed, there is a greenhouse, and there is no need to wait until the next spring to conduct agricultural research. It can still be done in the severe winter of the first year of Zhengde.
While Zhu Hou was taking care of Yan Song cultivating the first batch of corn seedlings, the memorial regarding the rejection of Song Kai, the censor of the Southern Zhili Prefecture, and his petition to the Zhenjiang Prefecture and the Chongming County Taxation Bureau of Suzhou Prefecture also returned to Song Kai's hands. After reading it, he couldn't help but became furious and threw the memorial on the case: "Instead of abolishing the tax bureau, we have to increase the tax bureau. How is this act different from a cowardly king who does not care about people's wealth!"
After Song Kai cursed secretly, he drank a whole cup of tea quite depressedly, thinking about how to explain to the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. After all, he had collected their money and the woman they sent him had fallen asleep. Now, the court suddenly rejected my proposal. Isn't it embarrassing?
"Go and tell Mr. Yuan to come!"
In the end, Song Kai decided to tell the truth to these Jiangnan gentry. After all, it was not his own refusal.
Yuan Zhong'an, a wealthy gentry from South Zhili, came to Song Kai and said, "Master, may I ask if you have anything to do with the student?"
"The imperial court's approval has been received." Song Kai gave the memorial to Yuan Zhong'an. After reading it, Yuan Zhong'an laughed: "It seems that the current imperial court is really dominated by northerners and does not give us southerners a way to survive. But , it’s not like there’s no other way, I’ll ask you to give me some advice when the time comes!”
As Yuan Zhongan spoke, he whispered in Song Kai's ear.
Song Kai couldn't help being shocked after hearing this: "This move is very dangerous. Once discovered, your life and property will be at risk!"
"What are you afraid of? This was not done by you, nor even by my subordinates. It was done by water bandits and pirates. How can the court investigate it?" Yuan Zhongan said with a smile.
"What good will it do if I keep this matter secret for you?"
Song Kai asked.
"In the future, I will share half of the profits from going to sea with you, and I will give you 50,000 taels of silver every year!" Yuan Zhongan said with a smile.
Song Kai did not answer after saying this, and only said: "I will go to Nanjing in three days. You can take action by then."
"Understood!" Yuan Zhongan replied.
……
On this night, it happened to be raining heavily. Although it was only noon, the sky was already as gloomy as night. Several eunuchs from the taxation bureau were taking a nap against the wall, and the tax supervisor on duty was just about to go back to his room to sleep. But they found a group of water bandits with white cloths on their heads, bare feet and holding big knives rushing towards them from the river bank ahead!
The tax supervisor immediately shouted: "There are water bandits! There are water bandits!"
The soldiers of the Taxation Bureau were frightened to death all day long, but they instinctively picked up their spears and rushed into the rain to defend the Taxation Bureau. However, these water bandits were outnumbered, and soon the soldiers of the Taxation Bureau were killed. In a mess, several eunuchs from the Taxation Bureau were directly chopped into pieces!
The tax supervisor was also beheaded on the spot!
No one in the entire Zhenjiang Prefecture Taxation Bureau is alive!
At this time, the leader of the water bandits came over, took off his veil, and greeted Yuan Zhongan: "Master Yuan! Kill them all!"
Yuan Zhong'an nodded, walked into the Tax Bureau, ordered someone to open the Treasury of the Tax Bureau, and ordered: "You take five thousand taels! Send 10,000 taels to Mr. Wen's house! In addition, Send 10,000 taels to the Inspector! Next, distribute it. These are all the taxes paid by everyone over the years, which can be regarded as a refund.”
And at this time.
At the Taxation Bureau of Chongming County, Suzhou Prefecture, hundreds of pirates also stabbed the bright steel knives into the chest of the tax supervisor, and hundreds of tax bureau personnel were massacred on the spot!
……
Song Kai, the imperial censor of Southern Zhili, soon wrote another memorial:
"Because water bandits and pirates looted the Zhenjiang and Chongming County Taxation Bureaus of Suzhou Prefecture, resulting in numerous casualties among the people, in order to avoid local chaos and bring peace to the people, please remove the Zhenjiang and Chongming County Taxation Bureaus of Suzhou Prefecture!"
Song Kai believed that the court would realize the power of the Jiangnan gentry. It would be fine if the court agreed. If they disagree, it will only increase casualties! Moreover, you can't find any reason to punish them, because it was all done by water bandits and pirates.
This is a 3,000-word chapter. Thank you to Twilight Liusuo for the 100 starting point coin reward. I will update the 3,000-word chapter later. I will try to use larger chapters in the future, so that I can make the book more interesting.
(End of chapter)