In the political hall, Yang Yi distributed a large pile of materials to the sitting monk Shangshu.

Everything is based on facts, so that it is the most convincing, avoiding rip-off, and saving everyone's time.

And the senior officials of the political hall are also accustomed to his pragmatic style, and they look carefully after receiving the information.

Yang Yi waited for them to finish reading before he said eloquently: "You must have also seen that these materials in your hands are the data obtained by the official from various ministries, and the official has roughly counted that the value of goods flowing into the Great Song Dynasty last year exceeded 750 million yuan, which does not include the procurement behavior of the imperial court; That is to say, the Great Song Dynasty was made a fortune of 750 million yuan by foreign merchants last year, of course, including the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty; Let's take a look at what the commodities that earned these riches are, the trade with the Liao State, mainly horses, cattle, sheep, camels, iron, medicinal materials, leather goods, etc., which is very good, can be eaten, worn and used; Let's take a look at the goods imported into the Great Song Dynasty from the Western Regions. It is mainly divided into several categories, the first category is pearl gemstones; The second category is **, hematoxy, borneol, agarwood, indigo, pepper, etc.; The third category is rhino horn, ivory, and glass products; In addition, there are fire alkane cloth, Wenjia, etc.; Finally, let's look at the statistics of the four cities in the southeast, the imported Song Dynasty commodities from overseas are also divided into several categories, the first category includes gold and silver, ivory, rhino horn, pearls, coral, tortoiseshell, emerald feathers, agate, cat eyes, glass, etc.; The second category is spices: agarwood, **, true incense, ambergris, rose water, sandalwood, note incense, light incense, golden incense, etc.; The third category is medicinal herbs: hemata, afoetida, nutmeg, white cardamom, myrrh, pepper, cloves, woody incense, Suhe oil, etc.; The fourth category is daily necessities: jibei cloth (cotton cloth), pan cloth, Korean cloth, silk cloth, pine board, shirt board, Luo board, ebony wood, mat, folding fan, sulfur, etc.; Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that among these imported commodities, precious goods such as pearls, agate, precious stones, glass, rhino horn, ambergris and other precious luxury goods account for more than half of the value of all imported commodities; In other words, last year alone, the people of the Great Song Dynasty spent at least 200 million to 300 million yuan on luxury goods.

A large amount of gold and silver in the Great Song Dynasty flowed out, but most of them were exchanged for these luxury goods, I don't know how you feel about this? ”

Yang Yi spoke with conclusive data, leaving the prime minister and Shangshu sitting there speechless.

These data were originally scattered in various departments of the imperial court, and no one would care, but Yang Yi counted it, but the results were shocking.

Last year, the annual income of the Great Song Dynasty was only more than 160 million guan, and the foreign businessman Song Shangguang earned more than 200 million guan on luxury goods, which is still Yang Yi's rough statistics; Everyone knows that even if the city and border fields are set up, there are still a large number of goods that enter the Great Song Dynasty through smuggling, so if these smuggled goods are also counted, how much will this data increase?

Cai Jing asked in a deep voice: "According to Bachelor Yang's meaning, but do you want the border field and the city to restrict the inflow of these goods?" ”

Yang Yi shook his head and replied: "Cai Shangshu misunderstood, it's still the same sentence, the market needs something, and forced restrictions have little effect." Just like the Great Song Dynasty's restriction on copper coins leaving the country, it will only give a small number of people greater opportunities to make profits, and the actual effect will not be great. ”

Zhang Dian was still so direct, and said, "If Master Yang has any ideas, please come!" ”

Yang Yi smiled bitterly: "Zhang Xianggong, you can't always be like this, your thoughts are always hidden, but let the subordinate take the lead." ”

"Who made you the youngest and the most energetic? If young people don't take the lead, do we let the old bones charge forward? Outrageous! ”

The answer between the two drew a chuckle from everyone, and the atmosphere in the political hall was much more relaxed.

Yang Yi then continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, this official mentioned this, not to ask the imperial court to restrict the inflow of these commodities, you don't have to be too nervous, the incoming commodities have earned hundreds of millions of yuan in the Great Song Dynasty, but the commodities exported by our Great Song Dynasty have earned even more; On the whole, our foreign trade of the Great Song Dynasty is in a state of surplus, and there is no need to make too much regulation, as long as we continue to encourage industry and commerce; The main reason I bring these data today is to illustrate how luxurious the life of the wealthy class in the Great Song Dynasty was; Luxury is called luxury because it is not a necessity in people's daily lives. The only people who can buy these luxury goods are some of the wealthy families, including the ministers sitting here, and of course, including me. ”

Yang Yi's words caused everyone to chuckle again.

"This is actually a very heavy question, so I asked you to relax first, and after listening to the following words, you probably won't be able to laugh; There are poems in the Du Gong Department: Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road. The prosperity and withering are very different, and the melancholy is difficult to recount. The gap between the rich and the poor is definitely not only a melancholy and indescribable feeling for Du Gongbu, I believe that the poor people all over the world will have this feeling; As the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider, this melancholy will inevitably become more and more intense, and eventually evolve into a kind of class hatred. When I founded the Great Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizu encouraged meritorious heroes to buy concubines and enjoy themselves. However, this actually led to the fact that in the 140 years of the Great Song Dynasty, the families of the gentry and wealthy families advocated extravagance, and Emperor Taizu encouraged the meritorious heroes and nobles to enjoy themselves out of the actual needs of the time, which is true, but today, the Great Song Dynasty has stabilized, so this kind of extravagant behavior should no longer be encouraged.

The land annexation of the Great Song Dynasty is serious, and the gap between the rich and the poor is also unprecedented in all dynasties. The gap between the rich and the poor makes most of the lower-class people not feel the kindness of His Majesty and the favor of the imperial court, but only see the extravagant waste of the rich around them. Or is it the same sentence, Cang Liao knows etiquette and knows honor and disgrace when he has enough food and clothing, and the people are not full or warm, how can they have a sense of identity with this country? What's more, there are people around him who are extravagant and wasteful without restraint; What will they think?

On the other hand, it is also extremely detrimental to the state for the rich to waste their money on luxury, and the rich pay 10,000 yuan for a gem only for their own viewing; If this 10,000 yuan is used to invest in workshops and production materials, how many materials can be provided to the society, and how many poor people can be given the opportunity to work. How much difference does this bring to society compared to selling a gemstone?

You may think that the rich have money, and it is their freedom to spend it, and that's right. But from the perspective of Your Majesty and the court, the people of the world, none other than the king's ministers, since they are all your children, shouldn't they give them some guidance on their behavior?

Let the rich help the poor, so that everyone can survive, this is Your Majesty, and it is the responsibility of the princes of the imperial court.

Having said all this, the official meant that a consumption tax of 50% would be levied on luxury goods such as gems and jade, and that this kind of luxury would be curbed in the form of a policy. ”

After Yang Yi finished speaking, the government hall fell silent again, just like the last time Yang Yi proposed the budget, all the ministers present needed time to digest his words.

After half a cup of tea, Su Song first spoke: "According to you, the collection of this luxury excise tax is indeed conducive to narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, but in fact, this tax is difficult to operate, the prices of these luxury goods you mentioned are usually very high, and the price changes are very large, it is not like rice and cloth, the price in the market is usually stable within a certain range; For example, the same gemstone may sell for 1,000 or 10,000, depending on the buyer's preference and vision. If the buyer likes it very much and lacks vision, it is not surprising that a gemstone worth a thousand yuan is sold for ten thousand yuan; If the price of gemstones cannot be defined, the imposition of excise tax will inevitably be confusing; When specific officials collect taxes, the scope is also easy to be arbitrarily expanded, and the amount of tax collection cannot be determined; Take the above gem as an example, the merchant this gem is roughly worth 1,000 guan, and the tax collector says that it is worth 10,000 guan, and the amount of tax is very arbitrary, and everything is decided by the tax collector, and it is self-evident what the consequences will be; For another example, you say that gemstones are a luxury, and the rich don't buy gems anymore, but go to restaurants and green buildings to spend thousands of dollars, is this considered luxury? Do you want to be taxed? ”

Yang Yi also had to admire his father-in-law, who could come up with so many problems in such a short period of time, what a good old man!

Yang Yi didn't speak, wanting to see what others thought.

The next person to speak was Cai Jing, Cai Dacai was in charge of Da Song's money bag, and whether or not to levy a luxury consumption tax had the greatest impact on him.

He shook the sleeves of his robe and arched his hand to Su Song: "Xiaguan came to answer Su Xianggong's last question first, Xiaguan thought that if you go to a restaurant or a green building to spend 10,000 gold, you should also be taxed, and the imperial court can set an amount for merchants, such as 1,000 guan, as long as someone spends more than 1,000 fees at a time in a restaurant or a green building, you need to pay consumption tax; In addition, Su Xianggong mentioned the problem of high prices of luxury goods and large price elasticity, and the official thinks that these can be slowly thought of and regulated, even if they cannot be very standardized, but they should not be wasted because of choking; As Master Yang said, this is a kind of tax that guides the consumption of the rich, to put it bluntly, it is to manage how people spend money and prevent the rich from being overly extravagant and wasteful; You have money to use to open workshops and do business, which is beneficial to the whole society, and the court can collect less or even no taxes; If you use it to buy jade treasures for your own viewing, you will have to pay a high consumption tax. This tax was beneficial to the imperial court, to the common people, and even to the wealthy who spent their money. ”

said a thousand ways and ten thousand, Cai Jing still saw the money, the introduction of luxury goods consumption tax, and the household department had another source of wealth, so it was not surprising that he came forward to support it.

(To be continued)