At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, after the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, commerce was seriously damaged, and the material was extremely scarce, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang announced that most of the merchants were exempt from tax, and the commercial tax was very light, and the ratio of thirty to one was levied.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor family, and his vision was limited, and he did not realize the great value of business at all. In addition, after nearly a hundred years of Mongol poison in the Central Plains, the population has plummeted and the land is barren, in order to quickly recover and even achieve long-term peace and stability, Zhu Yuanzhang has formulated many unique systems, giving everyone a unique and unchangeable identity, dividing the people of the world into military households, civilian households, artisan households, stove households and other lowly families. Shigong, agricultural and merchant, although the status of merchants in other dynasties is the lowest, they also have a place of origin, but in the Ming Dynasty, there is no business status at all.

If you don't have a business registration, how can you start collecting business tax? Therefore, most of the time, the Ming Dynasty did not collect much commercial tax, at most set up banknotes on some major rivers and roads, and levied tolls on passing ships.

It was not until the Wanli period that the commercial tax was re-levied, and the commercial tax revenue accounted for only a small proportion of the national treasury revenue.

Is it the underdevelopment of commerce? No, the Ming Dynasty is very commercially developed, and it can be known from the hundreds of sea ships that come and go along the coast of the Ming Dynasty every year. There are hundreds of wealthy families in Jiangnan with millions of wealth, where does the money come from? It is certainly not possible to rely on farming, so it is to open a workshop to engage in trade.

Every year, countless silk, tea, porcelain and other goods are shipped abroad by sea to Manila and the islands of the South Seas. Every year, dozens of seagoing ships sail across the ocean to reach Europe, circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope.

The trade within the Ming Dynasty was also very frequent, the cotton cloth of Songjiang was sold all over the country, the silk of Suzhou was very popular in the north, not to mention the Shanxi merchants who did business with the Jurchens of Outer Mongolia, and every year a large number of goods were transported beyond the Great Wall.

Huizhou merchants, Shanxi merchants, Guangdong merchants, Fujian merchants, Suzhou merchants, Jiangxi merchants, these are all merchant groups formed according to their origins spawned by the prosperity of commerce and trade in the Ming Dynasty.

The trade of the Ming Dynasty was so developed, but the imperial court could not collect commercial taxes at all, and the fundamental reason for this phenomenon was the household registration policy formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang. Without a merchant status, the imperial court could not collect commercial taxes openly. There is no business status, but it is not that there are no businessmen, and most of the current businessmen have the fame of showing talent on their heads, and they all have the background of high-ranking officials. Therefore, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty were simply part of the gentry group, and the merchants who did not have the background of the gentry would be eaten by the scum.

However, the Ming Dynasty was exempt from taxation for the gentry, that is, the banknote customs opened by the imperial court, and did not levy any tariffs on scholars with meritorious reputations.

Therefore, this caused the prosperity of commercial trade, but the imperial court could not collect a few money of commercial taxes, and any attempt by the imperial court to collect commercial taxes would be unanimously resisted by the officials, and it was said that it was competing with the people for profit. Therefore, Emperor Wanli was forced to bypass the imperial court and privately send a large number of eunuchs to act as mine supervisors and tax envoys, and go to various places to collect mining taxes and merchant taxes.

The entire Wanli Dynasty was a dynasty in which the emperor and officials and the gentry of the world fought for the law, and the Wanli Emperor was also slandered by Shilin as a faint monarch who was greedy for money. However, just imagine, if there is no Wanli's greed for money, where would there be the victory of the three major expeditions? Chongzhen was not greedy for money, but he made the treasury often impoverished, and the soldiers of the border army lacked food and salary, so that the Mantars became bigger, so that they were unable to eliminate the thieves in the country.

For the Nuoda Empire, it is not enough to live on land tax and salt tax alone, and the imperial court will never want to be rich if it does not levy commercial taxes. Chen Yue and Lu Zhenfei both know this.

Lu Zhenfei has always been the core of King Qi's lineage, so he can become the head of the Government Council and become one of the three phases. Lu Zhenfei is naturally clear about Chen Yue's thoughts, but.

"Lord Wang, the officials naturally have no opinion on the collection of commercial taxes, but I'm afraid the timing is not good now. Now the imperial court is using troops everywhere, and these involve a lot of energy. And the prince also knew that since the commercial tax was levied, all the goods in circulation had to be levied, and he couldn't get a few pieces of silver from ordinary merchants alone.

And the big merchants have the status of the gentry as a protective umbrella, and the Ming Dynasty is tax-free for the gentry, and the gentry are entrenched in the local area, and their interests will inevitably be greatly counterattacked. If there is local turmoil, I am afraid that it will be very detrimental to the overall situation. “

Lu Zhenfei said worriedly, it was not that he did not agree to the levy of commercial taxes, but that he thought that it was inappropriate in the current situation. Reform naturally requires an environment for change, and if the gentry make a disorder, the situation may be difficult to control.

Chen Yue nodded, he naturally understood Lu Zhenfei's worries.

"Lord Lu, you don't have to worry, the gentry class has always bullied the weak and feared the hard, and weakness is their natural attribute.

They may dare to oppose in the court and play conspiracy in private, but no one dares to openly meet with the court swordsmen! As for any act of secretly supporting the rebels, as long as it is found out by this king, one will be counted as one, and all the houses will be raided and destroyed! “

Chen Yue said, with a strong murderous aura on his body: "So many troops under this king are not eating rice!" ”

has a strong army in his hands, which is the capital that Chen Yue dares to shoot directly at the gentry. Yongzheng in another time and space can pay taxes as a gentry and collect commercial taxes, not relying on the force of the Eight Banners Army as a deterrent, what can the gentry and landlords do if they oppose it, and they are not obediently submitted?

The Qing Dynasty was incompetent, but the annual income of the Qing Dynasty reached tens of millions of taels of silver, and the average tax income of the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period was only two or three million taels, not even one-tenth of the annual income of the late Qing Dynasty. So even if the Eight-Nation Alliance invades, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ravages half of China, the old woman Cixi still has the money to repair her Old Summer Palace.

Da Ming is too good to the gentry, making them think that they are the masters of Da Ming. Chen Yue didn't plan to get used to them!

"The matter of levying commercial taxes is thus decided, Lord Lu, when you go back, you will be ready, I will make it clear to Your Majesty, and set up a Ministry of Commerce under the Government Council to manage the collection of commercial taxes by commerce across the country.

Set up customs in various places, in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places to re-set up the city, these must be planned as soon as possible, these are directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce in the future will be a huge organization! “

"Yes, my subordinates obey!" Seeing that Chen Yue had made up his mind, Lu Zhenfei didn't say anything more.

"Master Lu doesn't have to worry, the bandits in various places can't jump for a few days, as few as a few months, or as many as half a year, and Daming will definitely be able to settle down. During this time, you should prepare first, plan first, and when the time is right, you will immediately push! “