"I see!" Li Shimin nodded suddenly, obviously understanding what Xia Hongsheng meant, and said with a smile: "The government has achieved the purpose of building a school, the people have a school for their children to study, and businessmen have spent money to buy a good reputation and reputation. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoTake what you need, kill three birds with one stone. That's a good idea. Hehe, Weihe Park, that's how it came about? ”

Xia Hongsheng smiled and said, "Your Majesty is really sage, you will understand it as soon as you hear it." It took Wei Chen a lot of words to explain to the merchants for a day before they understood the benefits. ”

"If these five schools can be built within this year, the children of Jingyang will be able to enrol next year. I see a lot of benefits to this universal education. At least, I won't make irresponsible remarks just because the wind is blowing and the thunder is blowing. Li Shimin rubbed his head, every time there has been a disaster in the past few years, there will still be people who talk about the king's immorality.

Seeing Li Shimin rubbing his head with a headache, thinking that this is also the person who wants to be his father-in-law in the future, Xia Hongsheng asked, "Your Majesty, what happened to you?" ”

Li Shimin sighed and said: "Some time ago, it was reported that more than 40 prefectures and counties in Henan, Shandong and other places had caused floods. This year, after two battles, troops had to be stationed on both sides of Dongying Road and Linyi Road, and a lot of food was consumed. Now we still need disaster relief, which is really stretched! I have already added all the income of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the past few years. Hehe, that's why I heard that you made those rich businessmen voluntarily contribute money and goods, but now it seems that this method can't add some income to the treasury! ”

Xia Hongsheng couldn't help but laugh, it turns out that the emperor also has a day when he is short of money!

In fact, the lack of money in the imperial court is not just this time. In the long feudal dynasty, there has never been a time when the state finances were very rich. The reason for the country's homogeneous form of income and its heavy dependence on the body and land is significant.

In the ancient Chinese feudal dynasties, in order to increase the country's income, many ways were thought of. One of the most important things that can fundamentally improve this problem is the reform of the tax system. From the Jingtian system of the Zhou Dynasty to the apportionment of the Qing Dynasty, the "economists" of the feudal dynasty have been on the road of exploring the tax system.

However, no matter how the tax system is reformed, it will always be confined to agriculture and land, so it will always have its limitations, and it will not be able to fundamentally change the essence of the country's single income and its heavy dependence on the state and the land. ”

Of course, the reform of the tax system requires an economic and social foundation, and changes must be made in a timely manner as the economic and social situation changes.

At present, because of the arrival of Xia Hongsheng and the subtle influence on the emperor, although he dare not say that business is prosperous now, it is much better than before. It's a time when business is good. And if the current situation remains unchanged, or if the imperial court has a policy to encourage business, then it is foreseeable that the next commercial boom will boom.

Merchants are making more money than before, but they are still paying no or very little taxes as before. Xia Hongsheng felt that it was time to incorporate business tax into the tax.

In Xia Hongsheng's view, the reform of the tax system must not be rushed, let alone ignore the social and economic conditions at the current stage. I can't even think of "finishing all the work in one battle", the steps are too big, and the result is nonsense.

There are many advanced tax systems in later generations, but it is absolutely impossible to implement them now. It can be used as a direction for the reform of the tax system in Datang, but it can never be used directly.

At this stage, the most suitable tax system for Datang to use at this stage should be the "Two Taxation Law" first, and then the transition to the "One Whip Law". As for the further birth of the apportionment into the mu on this basis, although it increased the country's income, but it strengthened the feudal centralization, Xia Hongsheng did not consider it for the time being. Because Xia Hongsheng hopes that when Datang passes the two tax laws and reaches a whip law, the germ of capitalism can appear.

The two taxation laws changed the tax system that was dominated by people since the Warring States Period, and "only based on assets, not people", so that the ancient tax system developed from "tax people" to "tax people", reflecting the principle that the feudal state controlled private land ownership to varying degrees in the past to the principle of non-intervention or less intervention.

The two taxation laws have changed the practice of levying taxes and levies on the basis of taxation and levying labor, and that taxes and levies are mostly carried out on the heads of the poor working masses; they have not only broadened the breadth of taxation and increased fiscal revenues by taking the amount of property as the basis for calculating taxes, but has also made the tax burden relatively fair and reasonable because the tax burden is levied according to the amount of property, that is, according to the taxpayers' ability to bear taxes, and has reduced the tax burden of the vast number of poor people to a certain extent, and at the same time simplified the tax items and procedures. This played a positive role in emancipating the productive forces and promoting the recovery and development of the social economy at that time. It has mobilized the enthusiasm of the laborers in production, which is a historical progress. It laid the foundation for the two taxation laws after the Song Dynasty and was a major event in the history of China's taxation system.

However, as a feudal tax system, the two tax laws still have their feudal and limitations.

If we do not adjust the household level for a long time, we will not be able to implement the principle of equal burdens between the rich and the poor. Due to the underdevelopment of money, when the amount of the household tax in the two taxes was calculated in money, because the government levied money and the money in circulation in the market was insufficient, the phenomenon of heavy money and light goods soon appeared, and the peasants had to sell silk, grain, or other products at a low price to pay taxes, which increased the burden. Under the two-tax system, land was legally bought and sold, land annexation became more prevalent, the rich forced the poor to sell their land without removing taxes, and the taxes were not paid, but they could not pay them, so they had to flee, and the concentration of land reached an unprecedented level, and the peasants became tenants and farmers.

Part of the content of the two taxation laws went beyond the objective conditions at that time, that is, "although there has been considerable social and economic development, the development of the monetary economy is still restricted by various conditions, and the conditions for changing taxes to be levied in monetary terms are not fully met."

However, since Xia Hongsheng already knows these shortcomings, he can make targeted modifications and adjustments to make them more in line with the actual conditions of the current Datang, and go to the rough and fine, and implement them smoothly.

After thinking about it, Xia Hongsheng felt that this was a good opportunity to propose a two-tax law. So he said to Li Shimin: "Your Majesty, if you want to make the country rich, you can't rely on agriculture and land alone, it's too simple. ”

"Oh?" Li Shimin raised his eyebrows, looked at Xia Hongsheng, and said, "Then Xia Qing thinks that how can the country be rich?" (To be continued.) )