Geng Yingqu's success, in the eyes of Gao Yigong, of course became a banner with exemplary effect. After discussing with the other two military envoys, Bai Wang and Chen Xin, he decided to promote Geng Yingqu as the leader.

Use this as a benchmark to persuade the gentry to join the merchants in cultivating goods.

After all, not all gentry have administrative talents, not all gentry have the ability to pass the imperial examination and become Chu Chuang officials, and not all gentry have enough talent to enter Gu Junen's eyes and be promoted to join the army.

Staff members.

Among the remaining gentry, there are many who lack the ability to do business and produce goods. Fortunately, there is now a group of successful people headed by Geng Yingqu. Those gentry who lack the ability to do business can only invest in gentry merchants who have achieved results.

Or you can jointly sell goods with them and collect dividends to make a living.

In fact, this was the first level of Li Laiheng's intention to implement the new camp field law.

The farm system deprived landlords of their land management rights, although it retained part of their land interest income, allowing them to reap some benefits from their original land.

However, as Chu Chuang's regime continued to consolidate, Li Laiheng continued to use various new methods to reduce the real estate income of the gentry and landlords due to drought and floods, forcing them to completely give up investing in land and switch to the ranks of business.

Under the farm system, land surveyed and farmed were divided with the cultivators, and the landowners received very little interest. In terms of land tax rates, although the Chu Chuang regime gave preferential treatment to the owner-cultivators, it did not treat the tenant farmers who accounted for the largest number of farmers.

, the tax rate of the Chu Chuang regime did not have much advantage over the original tax rate of the Ming Dynasty.

But the characteristic of the land camp policy is that the land rent that the original landlords collected from the peasants was completely seized by the political power. Through the land rent, the Chu Chuang regime could obtain income that far exceeded the general tax rate of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact it took the land rent from the landlords.

The original land rent rate collected has dropped significantly.

For the tenant farmers, the most serious exploitation they received was not the land tax from the Ming Dynasty, but the land rent from the landlords. Nowadays, the land rent is completely controlled by the Chu Chuang regime, and the land rent rate has dropped significantly. Chu Chuang

The regime was still extremely profitable, and the tax burden on the tenant farmers was reduced almost several times.

This has not yet mentioned that because the land management rights fell into the hands of the village envoys, the gentry and landlords who lost their land management rights could no longer use various excuses to force the tenant farmers to become long-term workers for the landlords, spending a lot of working time doing useless work for the landlords.

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This part of the "super-economic exploitation" originally belonged to the gentry and landlords. After it was controlled by the village envoys sent by the Chu Chuang regime, they were able to use their leisure time to organize tenant farmers who had not participated in militia training to repair water conservancy, further revitalizing the agriculture of the Chu region.

Production status.

The Chuang army eliminated bad regulations in Hubei and increased fiscal revenue. Therefore, although they frequently carried out large-scale construction and water conservancy projects, the people were content with themselves and had no suffering at all. Because they did not have to repair water conservancy projects during the slack season, they still had to be called by the landlords to help.

Doing all kinds of useless work, now helping the Chu Chuang regime to repair water conservancy projects can not only earn a certain amount of income, but the water conservancy facilities can also be used by themselves in the future. The enthusiasm for production is of course not the same.

As for the scope of commercial circulation, Li Laiheng basically maintained the "equal buying and equal selling" policy proposed by Li Zicheng, and mainly implemented economic policies to protect industrial and commercial circulation.

In the past, due to the need to rectify military discipline, the Chuang Army basically adopted a rationing system in the army. Soldiers were rarely given cash military pay, only a small living allowance, and the main payment was given to soldiers and their families.

Food to provide enough food for living.

However, as the Chu Chuang regime continued to develop and grow in Hubei, and the Chu Chuang army had basically completely broken away from the mobile combat stage, the semi-rationing system became very difficult to maintain for a long time.

The minting and circulation of currency, as well as taxation issues in the circulation stage of commodities, are slowly being brought to the list of things that Li Laiheng needs to consider urgently.

Currency issues, because after all, Li Laiheng still has a "central government" for the Chuang Army. Before Li Zicheng, Niu Jinxing and others completely finalize the monetary policy of the Chuang Army, whether Li Laiheng wants to mint standardized silver coins or implement a radical paper money policy, he will inevitably

There is a suspicion of overstepping.

The tax policy in the commodity circulation stage is the so-called "commercial tax". The Chu Chuang regime originally intended to focus on commercial tax, but considering that Geng Yingqu and other gentry and merchants were still in the early stages of development, most gentry and merchants were still in the early stages of development.

With very little business experience, these gentry who have not yet found a way out of life may have to go back to rebel once they study business tax again.

But some time later, after all, the Chu Chuang regime was different from the Ming Dynasty. A very powerful department like Kendeji, which was Li Laiheng's emotional management agency, was controlled by Xiao Weisong, a businessman, and a large group of other shopkeepers.

Xiao Weisong, who was born as a businessman, had a very sensitive sense of smell. After extensively collecting the details of commercial taxation in the Ming Dynasty, he sent letters to Guide, Dezhou, Zhending and other places many times to discuss and state the situation with Li Laiheng repeatedly.

Commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty included goods taxes mainly levied in the production and sales process, such as official store money, collapsed house tax, door stall tax, landing tax, tooth tax, deed tax, wine and vinegar tax, slaughter assessment tax, and pawn shop tax.

Decide on points and so on.

During the transportation of goods, domestic tariffs are levied on ship owners and car owners, as well as commodity taxes, banknote tariffs, industrial taxes (such as bamboo and wood points), gate taxes, dam crossing taxes, etc. levied on merchants who transport goods.

In addition, there are customs duties levied by the Municipal Shipping Department.

Among these various types of taxes, the tax revenue from Chaoguan and salt taxes is the largest. During the Wanli period, the tax revenue from Chaoguan reached its peak in the 26th year of Wanli, with the highest income reaching more than 400,000 taels. Starting from the 26th year of Wanli,

In order to increase commercial tax revenue, tax inspectors frequently come out. From Jiujiang to Yangzhou, within a few hundred miles, there are Hukou, Anqing, Chikou, Digang, Wuhu, Caishi, Jinling, Guabu, Yizhen, etc.

Taxation is imposed at every checkpoint. This will inevitably bring huge destructive power to commercial trade.

According to Zhao Liangqing, the then Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, in the 30th year of Wanli, compared with the previous situation where the commercial tax was fully paid every year and gradually and steadily increased, with the dispatch of tax supervisors, the local commercial tax collection appeared to be "based on the original

If the amount is reduced by one year, it will be reduced by one-third." Commercial taxes have not increased with the increase in taxation levels.

Take Wuchaoguan in Hexi Province as an example. Due to too many taxes, merchants rarely visit, and there are only more than 30 cloth shops left in the original more than 100. Before customs clearance, there were originally 38 merchants, but this year only 38 are left.

As for the two people, hundreds of stores have been closed. Many shops have closed their doors, seriously affecting the development of commercial trade.

In the early years of Chongzhen, Bi Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, who was born in the Donglin Party, strictly rectified the commercial tax, and the customs tax revenue gradually increased. By the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, it had increased from the highest of 400,000 taels in the Wanli period to more than 800,000 taels.

It can be seen that Donglin Party members may not be unable to play a good role in collecting commercial taxes. Or rather, in terms of financial rectification, the issues among officials have never been simplified to Jiangnan and North, Donglin and Feidong.

Lin is such a dualized form.

In terms of salt lessons, the income from salt lessons during the Chongzhen period was more than 1.3 million taels compared with the original amount in Wanli.

However, because most of the Sanchu lands occupied by Li Laiheng were not the main salt-producing areas in the Ming Dynasty, although the income from the salt class was extremely generous, they were destined not to have much fate with Li Laiheng.

As for other miscellaneous items, they were mostly goods taxes and had little to do with commodity circulation. In the sixth year of Wanli, the original amount of miscellaneous items was all converted into silver, and about 320,000 taels were actually collected that year. Since then, the miscellaneous goods taxes in the Ming Dynasty have basically not been significant.

Until the Apocalypse Period, due to the Southwest War and the Liao Dynasty, a total of 2.2 million taels of new wages were allocated. The Chongzhen Dynasty even added the "preferential and free silver for students" included in miscellaneous items.

Among them, hundreds of thousands more were sent.

It can also be seen from the increase in miscellaneous commercial taxes here that the Chongzhen Dynasty only increased commercial taxes, not decreased them. Even during the period of military tension, Chongzhen increased the privileges of "preferential exemptions for birth members".

It can be seen that the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty court were not due to the failure to collect commercial taxes, but more importantly because the Ming Dynasty court as a whole was completely rotten and decayed. Even though Chongzhen repeatedly increased commercial taxes, these taxes had to be continuously filled into a

In another bottomless pit, the corrupt court's corruption in all aspects will also consume a lot of tax money, and the inefficient administrative efficiency has even led to the disadvantage that only one penny can produce results if every ten cents are spent.

Whether to collect commercial taxes or not has never been one of the serious issues. In the third year of Chongzhen's reign alone, the miscellaneous tax increases were reorganized, and the actual increase was as much as 1.6 million taels. However, under the corrupt administrative system

Next, if the 1.6 million yuan is spent, and officials at various points in the process collect food cards, and in the end the tax money that is actually used, it is hard to say whether there will be 160,000 taels.

Therefore, Li Laiheng implemented the policy of "buying and selling equally" proposed by Li Zicheng. In the jurisdiction of Chuchuang, compared with the areas ruled by the Ming Dynasty, commercial taxes actually decreased instead of increasing.

Due to the increasing commercial taxes in the later period of Chongzhen, especially the commodity taxes in circulation links such as banknotes and customs, it has caused a large-scale depression of local commerce. Therefore, after Li Laiheng implemented the policy of "buying and selling at the same level" and reducing the commercial taxes at banknotes and customs, local businesses

Commerce and circulation were revived, and despite the reduction in commercial tax increases, direct tax revenue actually increased significantly compared to when Song Yihe was governor of Huguang.

In fact, this is not surprising. Everyone knows that like Zeng Guofan in the late Qing Dynasty, he set up customs and applied for cards everywhere, and collected banknotes like crazy. Although it can increase income in a short time, it will also inevitably cause a large-scale depression of business, drinking poison to quench thirst, and has extremely negative effects.

big.

It’s funny to say that Li Laiheng has read many time-travel novels in his later generations. Those time-travelers who traveled to the late Qing Dynasty all knew that banknote checkpoints were abolished and unified commodity taxes were set up to protect goods from being exploited at all levels in the circulation process and reducing competitiveness.

.But when they traveled to the late Ming Dynasty, they seemed to have a sudden idea. They suddenly didn’t understand the importance of commodity tax, and just set up banknote tax cards savagely and rudely. Compared with Chongzhen’s repeated increase in banknotes, it was really disappointing.

People can't figure out what the difference is.

Or maybe it's because these people don't know anything about Chongzhen's increase in the tax rate on banknotes and the addition of new banknote checkpoints in Wuhu, Nanjing Propaganda Department, Dezhou Warehouse, etc.

Of course, in terms of customs duties, the Ming Dynasty's policy was extremely problematic: the customs revenue of Fujian and Guangdong, all added together, was less than 50,000 taels...

However, neither Chu Chuang nor the Central Plains Chuang Army has controlled the seaport, so there is no need for Li Laiheng to consider the customs tax issue.

In fact, the reason why customs revenue in the Ming Dynasty was so low was simply because Zheng Zhilong dominated the East at that time, and almost all customs revenue fell into the hands of the Zheng family.

But even though Zheng Zhilong had amassed astonishing wealth through international trade, he still bought land in various prefectures in Fujian and did not spend the money on expanding the scale of the fleet or expanding the scope of industrial and commercial operations.

After all, Ming Dynasty land is the most stable and cost-effective investment.

Zheng Zhilong is one of the world's top super maritime merchants. He skillfully intervenes in and even monopolizes a considerable part of international trade, and occupies one of the most important territories in the world's commodity exchange.

Based on his maritime trade experience, he still used the money he obtained to invest in land. This fully illustrates how amazingly high the rate of return on land investment in the Ming Dynasty was, and the stability of land investment exceeded that of maritime trade by countless times.

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Unlike Li Laiheng who used the land camp system to forcefully reduce the rate of return on land investment to the point of being unprofitable, even if someone like Zheng Zhilong monopolized a large part of international trade, what would be the use?
Chapter completed!