In the second hall of the Household Department of the Central Government Office, an official of the Household Department is reporting to Guo Yunhou on the collection of commercial tax this year. After listening to the report, Guo Yunhou's mood was obviously much better.

After a year of clumsy household management, this is the first time Guo Yunhou feels a little down-to-earth. This year's disasters in Shaanxi and other places have caused the land receivable in previous years to fall from 27 million stones to more than 23 million stones this year.

However, with the reform of the domestic tax customs and tax system this year, as well as the monitoring of the flow of commercial funds by banks, the efficiency of commercial tax collection has been greatly improved.

After the public discussion of the provincial merchant representatives at the beginning of the year, the cumulative tariff collection method was abolished, and the tax collection quota of 35-12% was formulated, and the commercial tax was also subdivided into four categories: production tax, circulation tax, stamp duty and customs duty.

In previous years, customs tariffs were a self-collected item of the Son of Heaven, and if the household department could not interfere, it would be indifferent to such taxes. The remaining domestic commercial tax is divided into two parts, one is the silver tax and the other is the tax in kind. The tax on silver is generally about 200,000 taels per year, and the value of the tax in kind is not easy to calculate.

In the inner warehouse of the capital and the Hubu warehouse of Tongzhou, a large number of goods have fallen in value due to the long time they have been stacked, and even become worthless. In order to manage these goods, the imperial court has to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to take care of them, which is basically a loss-making business.

What's even more troublesome is that with the ** of the official system, the warehouse that lacks system management has become the private treasury of corrupt officials. If it weren't for the vigorous rectification that began last year, in fact, the corruption of warehouse managers has become an unspoken rule that officials are accustomed to. Even if it is a household official like Guo Yunhou, what he can do is only to ensure the safety of the Taicang treasury.

After reforming the way taxes are collected and reconctifying and abolishing various customs customs, basically all localities no longer collect commercial taxes in kind, and tax transfer has also become a way to remit taxes to the central household department through banks.

In this case, this year's household commercial tax collection has reached a rare 2.6 million taels, which is only 150,000 taels less than this year's salt tax of 2.75 million taels.

According to the statistics of the household official, 900,000 taels were taxed on raw silk, 350,000 taels on silk, 500,000 taels on cotton cloth, 200,000 taels on tea, 50,000 taels on porcelain, 500,000 taels on bamboo and wood, and 100,000 taels on other miscellaneous items.

In previous years, the high-priced goods such as raw silk and silk transported to the capital are gone, but instead, the total value of Taicang's income and silver this year has reached 5.35 million taels, which is more than 160 taels more than in previous years, which is really a windfall.

Compared with raw silk and silk, Guo Yunhou still likes real silver taels, after all, the former can only be used as a reward for the emperor, while the latter can be used to fill the expenses of the household.

Seeing that Guo Yunhou was in a good mood after listening to his report, Wang Yuansi, the newly appointed Duzhi Shilang of the household department, couldn't help but speak to him again: "Master Shangshu, when the students were summarizing the data from all over the place, they actually found a little problem, and I don't know if I should say it or not. ”

Guo Yunhou glanced up at this cronie, and said with a smile: "Wenshi can just say it if he has something to say, why are you so cautious in front of me?" ”

In the process of rectifying the officials of the household department, Guo Yunhou, with the acquiescence of Chongzhen, promoted several students into the household department, as his helper, Wang Yuansi in the Duzhi Shilang was one of his most valued students.

After hearing Guo Yunhou's instructions, Wang Yuansi said cautiously: "According to the students' summary of the data on the import and export of the cotton textile workshops in the capital, the students found that the fixed investment of the cotton textile workshops in the capital this year is about 7.5 million yuan, but their operating income is more than 10 million yuan, which means that the textile workshops that started construction at the earliest have not only recovered the capital, but also begun to make profits."

According to the new commercial tax law stipulated at the beginning of the year, the tax that each textile workshop should pay this year is 400,000 yuan. If it enters normal production, each spindle should pay a tax of 15 yuan a year. Even if you don't count the newly added spindles, based on 500,000 spindles this year, the tax that should be paid in three years is 1.9 million yuan.

At present, the Shuntian government has given the cotton textile industry in Beijing a tax exemption quota for three years, mainly because the government promised to let the cotton textile industry in Beijing contribute 1.5 million yuan within three years to make a comprehensive renovation of the streets and sewerage in the capital, so as to digest and accommodate the personnel laid off from the Beijing camp. ”

Guo Yunhou nodded and said: "Yes, although I paid some less taxes because of this, at least I always solved the difficulties in front of the imperial court, I don't think it is too much." ”

After Guo Yunhou finished speaking, Wang Yuansi continued: "If it's just like this, it's nothing. After all, the 1.5 million yuan was taken out of their pockets, and the excess tax could barely be counted as interest for the past three years. But the problem is that in fact, the government has not taken out this money at all. ”

Guo Yunhou hurriedly raised his hand to stop the student from continuing, and he asked in a slightly surprised voice: "The inner government didn't pay for it?" So who paid for the renovation of the streets, the construction of the railroad and the repair of the Gyeonggi Canal? ”

Wang Yuansi immediately replied: "In fact, the investment in the transformation of the capital comes from the rise in land prices. The Inner Government bought 3,000 acres of land near Zuo'anmen and then developed it on a large scale, building dozens of buildings of various sizes, called factories.

When the construction of the horse-drawn railway from Zuo'anmen to the inner city was completed, the annual rent collected for these factories alone was equivalent to half of the land price. In addition, in the name of building railway stations, the government also expropriated a lot of land along the railway line and converted it into shops, and the rent of these shops was also 2-3 times higher than that of ordinary shops.

According to the student's estimation of some data summary, the 900,000 yuan invested by the inner government in the early stage has been fully recovered from the premium of the land price, and the subsequent investment does not need to be taken out of its own pocket.

The Cotton Textile Association, which was established under the leadership of the Inner Government, stipulates that next year, a city construction fee of 05 yuan will be levied on each new spindle to improve the construction of roads and sewers in the capital and industrial parks, and it is said that the association's special account has received 150,000 yuan in urban construction costs.

Therefore, the inner government only temporarily advanced a capital investment, but they saved themselves more than 1 million in taxes. In the whole thing, the Inner Palace, the Textile Workshop, and the Shuntian Mansion benefited, but the interests of the imperial court were damaged.

Lord Shangshu, in the current state of the state treasury still exceeding its means, the household department should stop this selfish move of Shuntianfu, and can no longer continue to expand the scale of tax exemption in the cotton textile industry in the capital. ”

Guo Yunhou was silent for a long time, and finally sighed and said to his students: "I know this matter in my heart. You go down and get busy first. By the way, don't spread the word about what you just told me. ”

Wang Yuansi glanced at Guo Yunhou, who couldn't hide his exhaustion, although he hesitated, he still nodded, and then turned around and retreated.

The second day was December 1, which was the last court meeting in the first year of Chongzhen. Due to the cold weather and the wind and snow, the venue of the court meeting was moved to the magnificent Imperial Palace.

Also because of the weather, there were more than 1,000 court officials, and in the end, there were less than 800 of them. However, this has something to do with Chongzhen's style of not paying attention to the court meeting since he was in power.

After the establishment of the cabinet meeting and the state council system, which was already formalized, the major affairs involving the imperial court were basically decided by the senior bureaucrats of less than 70 people.

In the past, the phenomenon of impeachment of high-ranking bureaucrats by low-level bureaucrats at the court meeting, thus making a blockbuster, basically did not appear in the first year of Chongzhen.

Therefore, on this cold and dry morning, many low-ranking officials simply asked for leave to avoid this crime.

When the drums sounded in unison and Chongzhen came out of the apse to take his seat, the officials who were talking to each other suddenly became silent. Under the command of the ceremonial officials, the cabinet and the six ministers led hundreds of officials to bow to the emperor.

After the hundred officials finished saluting, Zhu Youzhen nodded to Wang Chengen beside him and motioned for him to start announcing the court meeting.

Zhu Youzhen always felt that today's drowsy sky was a sign that something bad was going to happen, and his premonition soon became a reality.

Not long after announcing the start of the court meeting, the three officials Zou Yuzuo, Zhang Yunru, and Liu Siqian played three things in turn.

The first is that the cabinet is dissatisfied with the reform of the bureaucratic system of the local governors and local governors' offices, which is to be carried out by the cabinet, and believes that it is contrary to the laws of the ancestors;

The second is that they are dissatisfied with the General Staff's preparations to build up field army units in various localities, and they believe that it is completely useless to spend a huge amount of military expenditure to form a new army now that the Ming Dynasty is already in a state of overkill.

Not to mention whether it is necessary to establish this army, just to form this army may make the danger of bankruptcy of the Ming treasury, we cannot agree with this risky plan. Moreover, the king should rule the world by focusing on moral education rather than self-sustaining force.

The third is the new learning taught in various schools in the capital, which does not respect the way of Confucius and Mencius, and often criticizes ancient and modern sages, such as saying that Zhu Zi's "preserving heavenly principles and destroying people's desires" is a moral shield used by Mr. Daoxue to disguise himself, in fact, these moral gentlemen are hypocrites who are "full of benevolence and morality, and a belly of men and prostitutes" and so on.

They strongly requested the imperial court to issue an order to rectify the new school, prohibiting these people from slandering the sages of the past and the present.

As soon as the three of them retired, Wang Shoulu, Qian Shisheng, and Qian Yuanyu came out again to admonish and impeach the inner government for meddling in the coal, iron, textile and other industries, suppressing the private industries in the northern market, and gaining a lot of wealth from them.

And it also relied on its special status to obtain tax-free treatment, which made it completely impossible for private businessmen to compete with it.

Jiangnan originally produced 2 to 30 million cotton cloth a year, but this year it has at least 3 or 4 million horses, resulting in a decline in people's livelihood and a depressed market.

And the imperial court's control of the raw silk market is to compete with the people for profit. This year, the tax on raw silk and silk collected by the household department is as high as 1.25 million taels, compared with only 3 or 400,000 taels in previous years, an almost threefold increase.

At the end, Qian Yuanyu also quoted a passage from Li Sancai's "Please Stop Mining Taxes", "The emperor loves pearl and jade, and people also love food and clothing; The emperor is worried about the eternal life, and people also love their wives and children, but the emperor wants gold to be higher than the Beidou, and not to make the people have the reserve of chaff and bucket promotion? The emperor wants to be for his descendants for thousands of years, and not let the people have peace overnight! "It has the meaning of overturning the case for Li Sancai.