Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 495 The Duke’s money!

In Yongle City, the Government Affairs Hall is calculating the accounts of the past few months.

Su Cho reformed the way the Ministry of Revenue recorded its income and expenditure, recording expenses with a red pen and income with a black pen. He also implemented a unified official document format and land policy throughout Guanzhong, and reorganized the "reporting" assessment. He is considered the founder of the entire Guanzhong bureaucratic system.

In fact, Su Cho did not invent anything new. Many of the systems were old systems that had been implemented on this land during the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, the effectiveness of this system also depended on who used it. After years of long-term adjustment, an effective bureaucratic system was finally established.

In addition, Su Ze also proposed the financial principle of living within one's means.

This principle is very simple to explain. At the beginning of each year, you should forecast this year's income based on last year's income, and then make a one-year spending plan based on this.

The annual expenses of the Government Affairs Hall and the Shogunate have already been determined in the expenditure plan, which is also to prevent the government from raising taxes endlessly in order to pay for expenses.

After all, in this era, there is no credit currency. If the government does not have enough money to spend, the only way is to increase taxes.

However, the series of wars that broke out this year caused the shogunate's military spending to surge, and the Government Affairs Hall had to hold another meeting in early May to renegotiate this year's spending.

In addition to important officials from the Government Affairs Hall and the Shogunate, there was also a round-faced eunuch attending the meeting. This eunuch was the eunuch in charge of the private treasury of the county mansion, and he also attended the meeting as an observer.

Su Ling ([a stingy eunuch]), this man in Yongle City had a nickname called "Pi Xie", which described his greed for money. Su Ling would not let go of a single cent of any income that came into the Duke's Mansion, and would put all of it into the Duke's Mansion.

Su Cho glanced at Su Ling. In fact, it was Su Cho who begged Princess Chenliu to let Su Ling attend the meeting. His goal was still to get money out of the inner treasury of the Duke's Mansion.

There was no way. Shu, Hedong County, Youzhou and Hengzhou were all fighting troops. These battlefields quickly consumed the savings of the Government Affairs Hall and the Shogunate. Things like money and food were still okay, because Guanzhong had accumulated a considerable fortune due to last year's recuperation.

But there was no way to deal with things like gold, silver, and silk. After several major battles, the generals and soldiers needed rewards, and these had to be real things, and the Government Affairs Hall and the shogunate were already stretched to the limit.

In order to support these wars, even the construction of Chang'an New City, which was originally ready to start, was suspended, causing the people in the Ministry of Industry to be weird every day.

In a word, the Government Affairs Hall and the Six Ministries are now penniless.

After Su Suan represented the Ministry of Revenue to talk about this year's expenditure, Su Chao looked around and said:
"The county lord also sent an order a few days ago, saying that the rent and labor service are the foundation of the country and should not be changed lightly. The areas that were exempted from tax and reduced taxes due to the disaster last year should not be subject to additional taxes. Let's discuss what to do."

Everyone's eyes finally fell on Su Suan.

This old clerk of the Duke's Mansion, formerly the Envoy to Luoyang, is now the financial boss of the Government Affairs Hall and Su Chao's right-hand man in financial management.

The Ministry of Revenue was in charge of the country's money and grain taxes. In terms of the number of people, it was the largest among all the ministries under the Government Affairs Hall, and in terms of power it was second only to the Ministry of Personnel, which was in charge of the assessment and promotion of officials.

Nowadays, some people call Su Suan the "Prime Minister of Finance". Last year, Guanzhong was able to balance its revenue and expenditure and even have a slight surplus, all thanks to Su Suan's financial management skills.

So everyone looked at Su Suan, expecting him to come up with some good financial management tips.

Su Suan stood up helplessly and said:

“A good cook cannot cook without rice. Finance is all about increasing income and reducing expenditure.”

"There is no way to increase income. It is only May now, and it is not yet time to collect summer and autumn grains. There is nothing to produce from the fields."

"The county lord has said many times that we cannot arbitrarily increase taxes. The path of increasing revenue is no longer feasible. Now we can only cut costs."

Everyone's faces looked a little ugly.

To be fair, Su Ze's treatment of officials is still good.

The official salary system of the Northern Wei Dynasty was rather crude, and before Emperor Xiaowen, officials did not even receive any salary.

Although the salary system was implemented during Emperor Xiaowen's reform period and officials had fixed salaries, the salaries were still very arbitrary.

Moreover, as the Northern Wei Dynasty began to abuse the rewards of official positions in the late period, the number of official positions shrank significantly, and the treatment of officials also began to decline as the number of official positions shrank.

In addition, although the system was changed to a salary system, the Northern Wei Dynasty still rewarded ministers during festivals.

There is nothing wrong with this matter, but this kind of reward is often casual, and the rewards are given to the emperor's close ministers or government offices in Luoyang.

This eventually led to a situation where officials in Luoyang had high salaries, while those in local areas had low salaries, or where there were particularly large rewards this year, but no rewards at all the next year.

This also led to serious corruption among local officials in the Northern Wei Dynasty, while officials in Luoyang were just lying down and waiting to die.

Based on this result, Su Ze reaffirmed the connection between official positions and salaries, disbursed salaries according to the level of official positions, abolished various rewards from the Northern Wei Dynasty, and incorporated them into the treatment of officials. In addition, different subsidy standards were formulated for officials other than Yongle City according to the degree of hardship in their posts.

The advantage of this is that the salaries of officials will increase, and some officials will be able to support their families without engaging in corruption. The salaries of local officials and officials at the central government will be balanced, and young officials will no longer regard being sent to other places as being far away from the center of power. Officials who are sent to other places will not engage in corruption just because they have left the center of power.

But at the same time, this system also brought about a sharp increase in government expenditures, especially the Ministry of Revenue report, which showed that expenses paid to officials at all levels had accounted for an increasingly large share. This was the case when the clerks and runners of local government offices were not included in the Ministry of Revenue expenses and were still borne by local county governments.

According to Su Ze's plan, a portion of a county's officials should also be included in fiscal expenditures, thereby ensuring a certain degree of independence for local officials.

Su Suan said that we need to cut costs. The biggest expense is military spending, which definitely cannot be cut. The only thing that can be cut is the salaries of officials.

This is something that will be hated by all officials and will naturally arouse everyone's disgust.

But everyone still looked at Su Suan with admiration. Only he could express such objection without scruples. No wonder people in Yongle City said that Su Suan was the private and lonely minister of Duke Su, and he never hesitated to sacrifice himself when making proposals.

Su Chao gritted his teeth and said:

"In Yongle City, officials above the fifth rank will have their salaries suspended for two months. They will receive their salaries after the autumn grain is stored in the warehouse. Local salaries will remain unchanged."

In fact, according to Su Chao's calculation, not much salary can be saved. He was just making a gesture. Our officials have already tightened their belts, and now it is the turn of others to express their opinions.

This "someone else" is naturally the inner treasury that is in charge of the revenue and expenditure of the county mansion.

Su Chao looked at Su Ling and said:

"Mr. Su, I asked you to come here today to discuss the business tax."

Su Chao had no choice. This was the rule when the income was divided back then.

The rent and taxes paid by the people, that is, land tax and head tax, were taken from the people and used for the people. All of them were sent to the treasury of the Ministry of Revenue to be used for the expenditure of the entire country.

The output of shops, caravans, and mines under the Duke's Mansion all belong to the inner treasury of the Duke's Mansion and cannot be encroached upon by the outer court.

Correspondingly, after obtaining these revenues, all kinds of rewards, banquets, and palace construction of the Duke's Mansion became the responsibility of the Duke's Mansion itself, and the Ministry of Revenue no longer paid for it.

These were the final results after Princess Chenliu had just married into Yongle City and had many heated debates with the Government Affairs Hall.

But there are still some gray areas.

First is commercial tax.

The result of the initial discussion was that the commercial taxes of sedentary merchants (merchants with fixed shops) would be collected by the government, while the taxes of traveling merchants (mobile merchants) would be collected by the county government.

This distribution method was actually good. Sedentary merchants were basically in the markets in the city. There were special market officials who could collect taxes, and the tax collection method was relatively simple. At the local level, this income could be used to pay the salaries of government officials and yamen runners.

The Duke's Mansion collected taxes from traveling merchants because most of the traveling merchants at that time were organized by the Duke's Mansion. These caravans were originally established by Su Ze himself. These caravans originally handed over their profits to Su Ze, so collecting taxes was just transferring money from one hand to the other.

The taxes on traveling merchants could be collected by controlling a few key checkpoints, and the collection was not difficult, so the Government Affairs Hall had no objection at the beginning.

However, as Su Ze's influence in the Western Regions expanded, more and more caravans began to travel between the Western Regions and Guanzhong. The amount of commercial taxes collected from these merchants became increasingly larger, which also attracted the covetousness of the Government Affairs Hall.

In particular, in order to collect more taxes, the Ministry of Revenue began to make a big fuss about the definition of "traveling merchants" and "sedentary merchants". Some scattered businesses or small-scale mobile vendors within the states and counties were also classified from "traveling merchants" to "sedentary merchants". Some traveling merchants doing business in the market would also be charged sedentary merchant taxes by government tax collectors.

Because of these things, Su Ling, who was in charge of the inner treasury, and Su Suan, who was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, had many conflicts, and many lawsuits were directly brought to the side of the mistress, Princess Chenliu.

In addition to commercial taxes, taxes from iron smelters, workshops, and mines under the name of the county mansion were also coveted by the Ministry of Revenue. Take the newly built glass workshop in Yongle City for example. The glass produced by this workshop is as pure as gems, and is no less than the "Da Qin" glass brought over by merchants from the Western Regions. The merchants have sold it to the Southern Dynasty as "Da Qin" glass, making a lot of money.

In addition, the gold-foil colored signature paper and printed and dyed cotton cloth of the County Duke's Mansion also became flagship products and were very popular in both Southern Liang and the Western Regions.

Everyone looked at Su Ling. There was nothing they could do. It wasn't that the Government Affairs Hall was planning to take over Duke Su's slush fund, but their finances simply could not sustain it any longer.

Su Ling cleared his throat, stood up and said:
"In fact, the Duke of the county has already issued an order to allocate gold, silver, silk and other items to the Ministry of Revenue."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but Su Ling said again.

(End of this chapter)