Zhou Yanru said coldly: "You are a small person, how can you be qualified to impeach me? This sentence alone will punish you for the crime of trespassing!"

At this time, the emperor spoke, "Grass edict: Ying Tianfu Xie Yuan Changwei, with social integrity, proficient in practice, I am very relieved." Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info promotion, Jinyi Weibei Town Fu Envoy, in charge of prison torture, Shuntian Mansion confidential matters, Commander Gunpowder Bureau, Qin this!"

In addition to the Beizhen Fu Envoy, who was in charge of the edict and torture, he was also in charge of the confidential affairs of this part of the Suncheon Mansion, which was under the jurisdiction of Daxing County, Wanping County, Tongzhou, Jizhou and other 19 counties in five prefectures, and governed the Gyeonggi region.

This is tantamount to giving Chang Wei the right of Jinyiwei to supervise this piece of Gyeonggi, which is too powerful. As for the matter of the Admiral Gunpowder Bureau, it should be caused by Yuan Keli telling the emperor about Chang Wei's thoughts on Wang Gongchang.

Seeing that Chang Wei was stunned, Wei Zhongxian pinched his tone and said, "Master Chang, thank you." ”

Chang Wei hurriedly bowed to the ground, "Thank you, Long Haven, Long live Your Majesty!"

Wei Zhongxian glanced at Zhou Yanru and said, "Lord Chang, now you have the right to impeach anyone." ”

The envoy of Jinyi Weibei also supervised Gyeonggi and did have the power to impeach anyone. Now, everyone knows that the emperor's edict is to reuse Chang Wei, Zhou Yanru's face has changed greatly, and he has offended the new Jinyi Weibei Town Envoy, and today I am afraid it will be difficult to be good.

Chang Wei took the opportunity to say: "Your Majesty, the minister impeached Lord Zhou Yanru, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, for his inappropriate speech, and he should be fined for one year!"

A one-year fine?

Wei Zhongxian's eyes froze, and the rest of the people were even more surprised, this punishment is too light, isn't it? Not to mention going to prison, at least you need a cane? Such a merciful Jinyi guard is rare!

The emperor said: "Accurate, the officials will write it down!"

Without waiting for everyone to come back to their senses, Chang Wei said again: "Your Majesty, the current disadvantage of the Ming Dynasty is that the peasants' taxes are too heavy, and in the long run, the ministers are afraid that the old things of the White Lotus will reappear, so the ministers ask the court to reduce the agricultural taxes as appropriate on the basis of apportioning the land into the mu." Of course, this work needs to be done slowly. ”

Before the words fell, one person went out of the class and looked at each other angrily: "Lord Chang, if there are frequent disasters today, and Houjin in the north is raging all year round, it is the time to use money, how can the national finance support the tax reduction?"

"Look at the color of the costume is Lord Tobe Shangshu Chen Dadao, right?" "Ranye!"

"That's a good question, Lord Chen!"

Chang Wei said: "Your Majesty, the minister still takes himself as an example. In the summer, the ministers and the Shen family, a huge wealthy man in the south of the Yangtze River, began to engage in overseas trade, and according to the tax rate of Ningbo City, each ship collected a tax of 80 taels; while the ministers and other seven ships made a net profit of 2 million taels of goods on board, and the transaction was made once every three months, and if it went smoothly by next summer, they would be able to earn 10 million taels of silver! My tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty is less than 10 million taels a year!"

"However, with this income of 10 million taels, we only need to pay less than 3,000 taels of taxes a year!"

These words shook everyone in the hall fiercely, and at the same time, many officials who were also engaged in overseas trade in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong immediately hated him, because they knew what Chang Wei wanted to say.

Sure enough, Chang Wei turned his head and said, "Lord Chen, what do you think about transferring the reduced agricultural tax to the commercial tax?"

Without waiting for Chen Dadao to answer, dozens of officials jumped out, "Don't", "Compete with the people for profit", "The benevolent do not do anything", "Land is the foundation of the country, how can there be people who light agriculture and value business?"

In the midst of the noise, Chang Wei shouted, "Stop!

This shout did not suppress the officials, but in exchange for a shout of "roaring court", "disgrace in front of the king", "punishment of crimes", "dismissal of officials" and "imprisonment".

Damn, these flies! Chang Wei felt a burst of irritability in his heart for no reason, and when he raised his eyes, the emperor showed an expression of disgust, and he seemed extremely disgusted by this endless quarrel.

Suddenly, I heard Wei Zhongxian dragging a long voice on it: "What kind of system is it to be noisy and shouting? Su ~ Jing ~!"

Only then did the officials close their voices, and Chang Wei instantly understood the personnel of the imperial court, "Hehe, it's really interesting, the emperor is afraid of civil officials, civil officials are afraid of eunuchs, eunuchs are afraid of the emperor, it's really a vicious circle." ”

The emperor nodded approvingly to Wei Zhongxian, who humbly bowed his fat body, but the smile in his eyes was even bigger, and the emperor turned back and said, "Aiqing, go on!"

Chang Wei reasoned and said: "Your Majesty, my Ming tax rate is very low, 30 taxes for agriculture and 1 tax for 50 taxes for business. However, the target of the tax collection is wrong, and the tax should play a role in social equality and ensuring the livelihood of the poor. However, my tax revenue has widened the income gap!"

"In an agrarian society, the main body of care is agriculture rather than business, and it is necessary to restrain local tyrants from annexing land, but I am only in the Hongwu Dynasty. Nowadays, the localities are too strong for the government to dare to collect taxes from them; as a result, the taxes that the powerful do not pay are passed on to the common people, and the gap between the rich and the poor is even greater! In the end, the poor have no food to eat, and they are in chaos; all the money is concentrated in the hands of the local powerful and cannot be used for the state, resulting in an empty treasury during wartime. It has become a situation of internal and external troubles!"

Taking the Song Dynasty as an example, the Song Dynasty's commercial tax was the main item of fiscal revenue, and there was a special endowment for the cities and towns of the city, and the mining tax on copper and iron smelting also exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"In the Song Dynasty, commercial tax was divided into two types: tax and residential tax, that is, the circulation tax and sales tax of goods. The tax is 2 percent, and the residential tax is 3 percent; businessmen who own houses, houses, and land must pay taxes according to ordinary households, and set up taxes in prefectures, counties, towns, and other places, and send officials to supervise the collection of merchants. The commercial tax collection network covers all urban and rural areas across the country. ”

"The names of its commercial taxes are very complicated, and the Song court clearly stipulates that 'commercial taxes are different from agricultural taxes'. Some goods, such as the small transactions of hawkers, basic production tools, such as ploughing cattle and agricultural tools, were sometimes exempt from tax in the Song court. ”

In fact, the commercial tax of the Song Dynasty became more and more stringent, and most goods were taxed. Commercial taxes are paid, and those who have no cash are paid in kind. There are also those who are levied in kind by the government because they need commercial goods such as iron tools and horses, which is called a tax rate of 10%. ”

Of course, the surtax of the Song Dynasty was a major criticism, such as the Lisheng money levied according to the size of the ship, and sometimes even empty ships were not exempt from this harshness, as well as the market money that appeared after the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty. The increase in government taxes has led to a high frequency of over-payment of taxes on goods, and it is also a major disadvantage that the same commodity has to pay taxes multiple times. ”

"Contracts must be made for the purchase and sale of bulk commodities such as farms and houses, agricultural livestock, otherwise it will be punished as a felony, and the imperial court will call it seal deed money, and the tax rate is higher than that of the residential tax, which is more than 10 percent. ”

"In the Song Dynasty, there were two types of taxes: one was to collect taxes. In addition, different commodities have different tax rates, such as real pearls, borneol and other precious commodities are taxed at 30 percent, while tortoiseshell, sumacy and other general commodities are taxed at 10 percent; the second is the official price of buying. Different commodities are bought by the government, such as rhinos weighing more than 30 catties, and military supplies are all bought by the government. ”

"The government bought foreign goods, except for a part for the royal consumption, most of the franchise became fiscal revenue, and the tax revenue of the city at the peak reached two million taels. ”

"In the Song Dynasty, the tea strip system was implemented, and the tea merchants had to pay for the purchase of tea in advance from the government, and in the second year of the government, the tea profit income reached 4 million taels; the spices were sold by the government because of their high profits; and the profits of salt tea and wine even exceeded the income of the fields. ”

It can be seen that most of the commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty came from the monopoly monopoly of the imperial court, so a large part of the government institutions in the Song Dynasty were business departments. For example, in the early Song Dynasty, the three divisions of salt and iron, degree branch, and household department were the highest financial institutions of the Song court. ”

"It is precisely because of the strict, fair and sound commercial tax system that the commerce of the Song Dynasty is developed, and the annual financial income of the Song Dynasty is more than 100 million taels of silver, and the maximum Tianxi era can reach 160 million!"

It was precisely because of the abundant financial resources that the Song Dynasty was able to use that small land area to fight against the Liaojin and Western Xia, and the people were still very rich. ”

In the end, Chang Wei said: "Therefore, the minister thinks that the imperial court should follow the example of the Song Dynasty and establish a sound commercial tax system to solve the current situation of rich merchants and poor countries!" )