The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Houzhao is very busy now.

The secret letter from the wild man Tang Hao arrived soon.

But Zhu Houzhao frowned after reading it, because Tang Hao discussed in detail in the letter how to reform the commercial tax system.

Since ancient times, the courts of all dynasties have emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, but many dynasties have obtained considerable taxes from commerce and invested them in social construction and people's livelihood development.

For example, the former Song Dynasty, where commerce was highly developed, although it was in a corner, relied on commercial taxes to not only support a population comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty, but also supported several barbarians!

The Ming Dynasty was also an agricultural-based dynasty, and it made many measures in agriculture, such as reclaiming wasteland and increasing planting area.

However, the Ming Dynasty suppressed the development of merchants too much, did not establish a complete commercial tax system, and the tax rate was extremely low. The tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty was mainly supported by agriculture.

This is because after Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty had a lot of things to do. There were peasant uprisings at home and Japanese pirates invading the borders. It was necessary to spend a lot of financial resources to support the army in order to ensure the stability of the border and internal environment.

But China has been based on agricultural production since ancient times, so the Ming Dynasty is no exception.

Therefore, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang first formulated a strict policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, restricting the development of commerce, limiting merchants within a certain range, and avoiding excessive merchant mobility, which brought instability to the grassroots society.

Secondly, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a sea ban policy, prohibiting private overseas trade, which cut off the connection between the Ming Dynasty and the rest of the world. It not only restricted the development of industry and commerce, restricted the circulation of goods, but also blocked the channels of economic and cultural exchanges at home and abroad, so that the Ming Dynasty could only contact the outside world through tribute trade.

In a sense, since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, emperors of all dynasties have attached great importance to agricultural development, and even gradually ignored the existence of commerce. In order to sympathize with the difficulties of the people, emperors of all dynasties have repeatedly reduced agricultural taxes and reduced fiscal revenue. The problem is that the military expenses of the nine borders have continued to grow due to the erosion of border defense. In the end, the finances of the Ming Dynasty collapsed completely, and finally the Ming Dynasty collapsed!

So if Zhu Houzhao wants to reform commercial taxes, he must establish a sound commercial tax system.

Tang Hao gave the simplest example in the letter.

For example, the current trade between the Ming Dynasty and other countries in the East China Sea, on the one hand, the Ming Dynasty can collect tariffs by building customs, and on the other hand, the Ming Dynasty can also open textile factories in coastal areas to produce silk cloth, the main goods of the East China Sea trade.

The significance of the existence of textile factories is to liberate the people from the countryside and fields, so that the people can get rid of the control of the gentry and gentry, and let them have another way of life to support their families, instead of just farming.

Common people and scholars enter factories as workers and work on time, and then the factories pay them wages, thus forming a new life model. When more and more people choose to become workers and enter factories, the court can try to build a commercial city dominated by commercial trade, including but not limited to various factories and various shops, to stimulate the development of local commerce.

Then the court can conduct pilot projects in these commercial cities, implement the reformed commercial tax system, and then implement the approved commercial tax system throughout the world. In this way, the commercial tax will far exceed the agricultural tax, and the court can even continue to reduce the agricultural tax to a lower level to reduce the burden on the shoulders of the people.

Zhu Houzhao was shocked after seeing it, and he also clearly realized for the first time how terrible the profit of commercial tax was.

Zhu Houzhao did not take the East China Sea trade in the past to heart, he thought that all the profits came from commodity trade.

But now Tang Hao told him clearly and straightforwardly that most of these profits were actually collected from commercial taxes, including tariffs paid by merchants from various countries to Jeju Island for business and trade, and the fees they paid for renting shops in Jeju Island, etc., and every day is an astronomical figure, so much that it makes people's scalps numb!

This is the charm of a commercial city!

This is the charm of commercial taxes!

Imagine if all the coastal cities of the Ming Dynasty were built into such prosperous commercial cities, what a terrifying number the commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty would be!

Zhu Houzhao even believed that by then, as Tang Hao said, even if the court no longer levied agricultural taxes to reduce the burden on the people, commercial taxes alone could fully cover various expenses, and there would even be a lot of surplus!

That would be the real peace and prosperity!

That would be the real revival of the Ming Dynasty!

But before that, there is a prerequisite, that is, the Ming Dynasty must open the sea!

If the sea ban is not lifted, the people cannot trade freely with overseas, and then building a commercial city is a joke.

But the sea ban is the national policy set by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and there has never been any change over the years. At most, Emperor Taizong Wen sent Zheng He to the sea to the West, but that was only an official voyage, not the lifting of the sea ban. In the final analysis, it was just for the emperor to control overseas trade.

Zhu Houzhao knew without thinking what the result would be if he proposed to do so. Those civil officials and gentry would definitely scold him!

Moreover, the reason why the civil officials and gentry held high the banner of Taizu and strictly implemented the national policy of maritime ban set by Emperor Taizu Gao was not because they respected Emperor Taizu Gao, nor for the sake of the people, but just to facilitate their own smuggling and profit.

In other words, if Zhu Houzhao really abolished the national policy of maritime ban directly, it would be equivalent to cutting off the financial path of the gentry in Jiangnan, and these greedy gentry and gentry would never agree!

So, the problem now is how to force these gentry to bow their heads and agree to the court's abolition of the maritime ban.

Just when Zhu Houzhao was worried about this, Jinyiwei Commander Mou Bin hurried over.

"Your Majesty, something happened!"

Mou Bin hurried in and said anxiously without even taking a breath.

"What happened?"

"How can you be so flustered?"

Zhu Houzhao said in a dignified manner, with a bit of the emperor's calm demeanor in the face of danger.

"Your Majesty, Jinyiwei found that the grain prices in the entire capital have begun to soar!"

"Grain prices have soared?" Zhu Houzhao frowned when he heard this, "Is it because of the severe drought in the three northern provinces?"

He still knew about this matter and had asked the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds for disaster relief.

"Something is wrong!"

"Originally, the price of grain has risen to 15 wen per jin due to the famine, and now it has suddenly risen to 30 wen per jin!"

"And the grain in the capital has begun to be sold at a limited price. Many grain shops have limited sales, as if they are waiting for the famine to spread so that they can continue to raise the price of grain!"

Zhu Houzhao's face instantly darkened when he heard this.

"30 wen per jin?"

"What do these bastards want to do?"

"There is a severe drought in the three northern provinces, and the victims are starving, but they are driving up the price of grain?"

Zhu Houzhao roared with murderous intent: "I must kill these bastards!"