The day before the Lantern Festival, the curtain finally came down on the merchants' congress, which had been held for nearly a month. With this meeting, the merchants finally realized that the congress was not only a place of discussion for the imperial court to collect taxes from them, but also a place where they could communicate directly with the imperial court on commercial matters.

In the past, these businessmen had encountered problems that hindered commerce in the local area, and they had to find local officials to dredge them up one by one. This approach is not only time-consuming, but also has significant limitations.

The officials of each county are like the emperor of their own county, and they do not follow the policies adopted by their colleagues in neighboring counties. Although it may be a good idea to buy higher-level officials, after all, county officials are not as good as current management, and there is a cost to buying officials.

As a result, most businessmen can only live with the bad rules of the place, unless they have made it impossible for them to continue their business. However, in the merchants' congress in the capital, the problems they usually look at are bigger than the sky, and in front of the imperial court, they are just small things that can be decided with a single sentence.

This strong contrast immediately made these business representatives see a more efficient way to solve the problems they encountered in business. What makes them even more happy is that this title does not have to be purchased with money, nor does it require any exams, and the biggest cost is the annual travel and accommodation expenses to Beijing.

At this year's meeting, however, the emperor made a proposal that made them even more excited. In view of the loss of time and money incurred by businessmen from various provinces going to Beijing to attend the conference, it was decided that a subsidy of 5 yuan per day would be given to each delegate during the conference in the future. In addition, each representative will receive a representative allowance of 100 yuan and a car and horse subsidy of 50 yuan every year in the future.

Chongzhen made this suggestion in the hope of reducing the number of non-attendance vacancies for merchant representatives. But in the eyes of these business representatives, this is an opportunity to transform the ad hoc form of the Council of Representatives into a permanent body.

The emperor's proposal was undoubtedly approved by the full authority, but the emperor did not plan to pay this extra money, and the imperial court would not come out, so he could only find a way from the commercial taxes in various places.

These merchant delegates were shrewd as to how to collect enough tax to keep the merchants' congress running, and they only listened to a few words of the Chongzhen faction's briefings among the delegates, and immediately decided to impose a heavy tax on luxury goods. A heavy tax of 50% is levied on all domestically produced luxury goods, and 100% on luxury goods imported from abroad.

Abroad, it is mainly all kinds of precious stones, spices and precious wood, etc., while in China, it is mainly high-quality handicrafts, such as high-quality furs, ginseng, furniture made of precious wood, etc.

When the decision was made to levy these taxes, the representatives of the merchants did not feel any burden in their hearts, but had a feeling of sulking. Speaking of the reason, it is simple, the above goods in the most profitable business are not for businessmen who have no background or not have a deep enough background can touch.

For Chongzhen, anyone who can afford luxury goods basically doesn't care about the price, and the people of the Ming Dynasty basically can't consume these luxury goods, and the impact on the whole society is very small.

The only ones who suffered were probably the merchants who ran the luxury business, after all, after the heavy taxation, their current windfall profits could not be sustained.

But the decision to levy the tax was made by the merchants' congress, which means that they will not be able to arouse the sympathy of the merchants against this tax policy. In the absence of popular public support, the officials who colluded with these businessmen would have to fight against Chongzhen and the household alone, and this kind of war with no chance of winning would not be provoked as long as they did not lose their heads.

In addition to the luxury tax to safeguard the functioning of the merchants' congress, the provincial merchants' representatives passed an additional resolution. They decided to set the date of the annual congress of representatives, which was an awkward time, but only at this time did the merchants of the provinces have time to meet.

In order to ensure the number of delegates attending the conference each year, they also decided to reduce the number of delegates from each province to six per province. Every year, each province sends three representatives to Beijing to attend the meeting, and the next year another three representatives, so that the biennial rotation can also reduce the impact on the lives of the representatives of the merchants.

The length of service of the deputies has also been adjusted to six years, with half of the seats being changed every three years. A statute of fines was established for absent delegates, and it was decided that delegates who did not attend for two consecutive years would be dismissed from the delegate and would not be selected as the next merchant delegate.

For the selection qualifications of merchant representatives, Chongzhen made an additional restriction, all businessmen who have tax evasion and tax evasion are not allowed to be selected as merchant representatives; Merchants who never comply with the resolutions of the Merchant's Congress on weekdays are not allowed to be selected; Businessmen who have a criminal record and are in the process of litigation are not eligible for selection.

At the same time, Chongzhen also asked the provinces to provide three alternate representatives as replacement personnel in emergency situations. Although the alternate representative does not enjoy the political rights of the official representative, he or she can enjoy the economic treatment of two-thirds of the official representative.

In addition, Chongzhen also gave these deputies an unexpected surprise, they will enjoy special protection during their tenure as representatives. As long as it is not a serious criminal offence or treason, they will not be arrested by local officials unless they have their consent or that of more than half of the representatives of the province.

Minor offences will be exempted, for medium offences will be held accountable until the delegate leaves office, and serious offences will be reported to the Congress, which will remove him from his post before proceeding to the judicial proceedings.

In general, the merchant congress in the first year of Chongzhen - the second year of Chongzhen was very successful. The merchant representative and Chongzhen were satisfied, and they each got what they wanted. And the household officials were also very happy, they did nothing and received an extra income.

For the time being, the number of business representatives is still allocated according to the 19 administrative divisions, and there are only 57 people at each meeting, and the meeting subsidy plus the cost of holding the meeting is less than 20,000 yuan, while the annual salary of the official representative plus the informal representative is about 20,000 yuan. In other words, this merchant congress spends about 42,000 yuan a year.

The import price of sandalwood in Macao is 40 yuan per quintal, about 8 or 9 hundred-quintals per year, with a total value of more than 30,000 yuan. The number of mink skins in Beijing and Zhangjiakou is 1 or 20,000 pieces per year, and this is only the number of taxes paid.

The lowest mink is 14 yuan/piece, the middle is 28 yuan/piece, and the top-grade mink is 42 yuan/sheet, although the mink is mostly in the middle and lower ones, but it is calculated at 2 yuan per piece, and it is also worth 2-40,000 yuan.

As for ginseng, although Korean ginseng is mostly crowned on the market, the annual tax of ginseng alone exceeds 6,000 catties, even according to the purchase price of 16 taels per catty of ginseng outside the customs, it is more than 96,000 taels a year, or about 134,400 yuan.

Excluding other luxury goods, the annual sales value of the above three types of goods alone is almost 200,000 yuan. Based on the calculation of 50% of the tax, it is more than 90,000 yuan of new taxes.

After deducting the expenses of paying for the merchants' congress and the cost of taxation, the household department has about 30,000 or 40,000 yuan more income per year. And that's not even counting the additional benefits that household officials will be able to reap in these tax collection processes. It was clearly a happy meeting for all.

At the same time, many household officials also found that in the past, they proposed to the imperial court to adjust the commercial tax, but the court had not yet made any decision, and the people had already been in turmoil, and it seemed that the imperial court had put forward some policy of wanton expropriation and looting of people's wealth.

The result was often that the court put the discussion on hold and the official who made the suggestion was reprimanded and demoted. Over time, on the issue of commercial taxes, it can only be reduced but not increased, which has become the political correctness of the Ming Dynasty.

To be honest, with the exception of a few officials in the household department, most of the household officials were in favor of increasing the commercial tax in order to reduce the land tax. According to the rules set by Taizu, people in the Susong area could not serve as household officials, so it can be said that the household officials were the department least affected by the influence of merchants.

These household officials, especially the middle and lower-level officials, can still see where the fundamental problems of the Ming Dynasty's finances lie. From the summary of local data collected by the Ministry of Households, it can be seen that it is already very difficult to collect land taxes at the current tax rate.

Since the levy of nine cents of silver in the last year of Wanli, the burden of the people everywhere has almost reached the limit. They are well aware of the ills of the local powerful gentry who distribute the taxes they should pay to other people. Because some officials also do the same thing in their hometowns, how can they not know how much the burden of the Ming people has reached.

This is also why, when discussing the increase in land endowment, there is no shortage of opponents in the court. Because these officials knew very well that the nine cents of silver, which seemed to be evenly distributed to everyone's heads, was nothing more than a number game to fool the emperor.

In the actual collection process, most of these taxes will only fall on one-half or even one-third of the people. In this way, nine cents of silver becomes a heavy tax of one cent, eight cents, or two cents.

And this is only a regular tax paid to the imperial court, according to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, at least 3-5 times the amount of the local government. This was not because the local officials were too greedy, but because the tax system was incomplete, and the imperial court did not pay the tax-collectors the wages to ensure their livelihood and provide the cost of taxation, plus the cost of transportation from the local government to the capital, and the cost of making points everywhere.

If the local official was allowed to collect only the amount of taxes prescribed by the imperial court, then the magistrate would probably not be able to afford to lose his family and property, because of the deficit caused by collecting taxes for the imperial court.

Therefore, as long as the household officials with a little knowledge and experience are very clear, not only is there no hope for making up their minds on the fields, but it is very likely that the cost of taxation will exceed the amount of taxes collected.

On the other hand, in terms of commercial tax, not only the cost of taxation is relatively low, as long as the card is set up on the traffic artery, as long as the tax amount is lower than the detour fee of the caravan, there is naturally no need to be afraid of tax evasion by merchants. Moreover, with the scale of Daming commerce, there is also a lot of room for taxation.

However, the political cost of proposing to increase commercial taxes is too high, and under the guidance of politically correct public opinion in the Ming Dynasty, any official who proposes a commercial tax will inevitably lose his political future. In this way, who would want to risk their political lives to save the International.

However, now the emperor has come up with a merchant congress, bypassing the political correctness of the Ming Dynasty. These household officials only need to formulate and implement tax plans in accordance with the resolutions of the meeting, which not only allows the household officials to avoid political trouble.

Most importantly, the implementation of almost every tax plan represents an extension of the local authority of the household ministry. As long as you are an official, there is no one who does not want the power of your department to expand. Compared to the potential losses to their relatives and friends, they are much more rewarded for the expansion of their power.

The annual salary of a tax collector assigned to the local government is about 60 yuan, but the default gray income alone is 2-3 times the annual salary. At present, the annual salary of a local Qipinzheng county is about 84 yuan, although the county official has a lot of extra money, but after all, others have studied hard for ten years, and a tax collector is just a civil servant recruited from the people by the household department.

As for the household official in charge of the taxation of a place, the income he can obtain is naturally not comparable to the filial piety of the local officials who sat in the capital in the past. After all, allocating money and grain to local accounts and actually handling business are completely different things.