Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 496 Tax

"But this payment is only for special cases and will not be the rule in the future."

Su Ling looked at everyone. The masters of Yongle City had been clamoring for a long time about redefining the palace treasury and the inner treasury.

In his opinion, these masters just coveted the money of the Duke's Mansion!
It doesn't even take into account how much money the Duke of the County put into the inner treasury in order to fight the war, or how much money the Government Affairs Hall was unwilling to spend, all of which were borne by the Duke of the County's Mansion.

Moreover, the Duke of Su did not use any of the money he collected for his own enjoyment. He even gave part of the Baizhang Tower to the Emperor Yuanxu for his residence, and did not build any new buildings.

Thanks to the foresight of the Duke of the County, he had already divided the inner treasury of the Duke's Mansion and the treasury of the Ministry of Revenue.

That’s why the Duke’s Mansion has the confidence to face the “begging” from the Government Affairs Hall.

The gold and silver used to support the treasury were allocated by the Duke of the County out of grace, and were not something the treasury should take!

This money is a deal! If we need money in the future, the Government Affairs Hall will have to continue to ask for it from the inner treasury of the County Duke's Mansion!

Su Ling was reiterating the agreement with the Government Affairs Hall. The money that had been transferred to the inner treasury was the Duke's money, and the Government Affairs Hall could not touch it!
After hearing this, Su Chao also understood what Su Ling meant.

Su Cho actually felt a little ashamed. The Duke of the County handed over the Government Affairs Hall to him. In order to control expenditures, Su Cho also established strict financial discipline, but he still could not stop the growing budget.

There is no way. In fact, even if there is no war, the government and military expenses in Guanzhong have been expanding rapidly in recent years.

The war simply brought the problem forward by a few years.

Su Ling thought of what the Duke of the County had said to him, "The ultimate goals of any bureaucracy are only two: managing more people and controlling more money."

The government affairs system in Guanzhong also fully illustrates this point.

Su Ling also conducted an investigation. In several counties near Yongle City, the government began to increase staff on a large scale just after solving the problem of food and clothing for officials.

The county magistrate even hired four yamen runners to carry his sedan chair when he traveled, and also hired several fellow villagers to cook for him.

If these personal expenses can at most be considered as improving life, the actual amount spent is not that large.

Then the large-scale projects undertaken by some county governors and county magistrates for the sake of political achievements are bottomless pits.

In the same county, after the county magistrate took office, he organized the county to start building canals.

In theory, building canals is a good thing that benefits both the country and the people, but this county magistrate knows nothing about water conservancy and has no unified plan. His only purpose in building water conservancy is to achieve his own political achievements.

In order to develop water conservancy, the county magistrate forcibly requisitioned most of the men in the county, but the canals built did not pass through much arable land. After wasting a lot of manpower and material resources, the actual irrigation effect of these canals was very limited.

The reason why Su Ling knew about this matter was because the county magistrate was exploiting local merchants, and the merchants from the county magistrate's caravan complained to him. Su Ling then reported it to Su Ze, who ordered the inspector to investigate, and that's how these problems were discovered.

As expected, the county magistrate has been dismissed from his post and handed over to the judicial office.

However, this phenomenon is probably common in Guanzhong as well. Otherwise, where does the ever-increasing expenditure of government at all levels come from?

It's just that the county magistrate ran into trouble and was discovered.

According to Princess Chenliu, no matter how much money is given to these officials, they will spend it all.

This is also the reason why the Duke of the County set up an inner treasury.

Su Ling couldn't help but sigh that the Duke of the County was also far-sighted and knew that this would happen today.

Su Ling looked around and continued:
"It is actually unfair to merchants to have sedentary merchants and traveling merchants pay taxes separately. Moreover, it is difficult to define whether many merchants are sedentary merchants or traveling merchants, which makes it inconvenient to collect taxes and there is also the problem of duplicate collection."

What Su Ling said was right, and everyone nodded.

In this day and age, except for the shops in Yongle City that Su Ze allowed to be opened along the street, other merchants traded in the market.

In fact, many shops were not fixed shops. They were more like the rural fairs of later generations. Merchants would stay in a town for a period of time, sell their goods here, and then buy local specialties to sell in other towns.

It is actually difficult to clearly define whether these merchants are sedentary merchants or traveling merchants, so these merchants are often subject to two taxes.

Su Ling said:

"The county lord believes that the distinction between sedentary merchants and traveling merchants should be abolished, and taxes on merchants should be levied uniformly."

Su Chao thought about it and felt that what Su Ling said made sense.

As an excellent financial official, Su Chao was actually aware of the problem.

An counterintuitive experience is that the simpler and clearer the laws related to taxation are, the more beneficial they are to ordinary people, while the more complicated they are, the more beneficial they are to the powerful.

The more complicated the law is, the more difficult it is for ordinary people to understand it, which gives officials and powerful people the opportunity to deceive their superiors and conceal the truth.

But for those rich people who have knowledge and free time, they have the time and energy to study the loopholes in the law, and the more complex the law, the bigger the loopholes.

Therefore, Su Ze has been continuously promoting the Three Chiefs System, which is to use the Three Chiefs to directly read the court's policies to the people, so as to prevent local officials and aristocratic families from taking advantage of information asymmetry to exploit the people.

The simplest example is that Su Ze once announced a tax exemption for several counties in Xiazhou due to a locust plague, but the officials of several counties did not announce the tax exemption policy to the people, and collected taxes from the people according to past practices. Naturally, all the money went into the pockets of local officials.

It was a retired soldier who served as the third chief who reported the incident to Su Ze, which finally exposed the incident. Later, Su Ze sent an inspector to Xiazhou, who eventually discovered that five counties had embezzled money.

Su Ze became furious and dismissed these county officials.

The distinction between sedentary merchants and traveling merchants was blurred, so naturally there were merchants who claimed to be traveling merchants when they were levied city taxes, and then argued that they were sedentary merchants when they paid traveling merchant taxes at the checkpoints, thus evading taxation on both sides.

Su Ling said:

"I think it is better to set up a department under the Ministry of Revenue to collect taxes from merchants."

Now everyone looked at Su Ling. They didn't expect that this "Pi Xie" would change his temper? He actually generously gave up his power?
Su Ling sneered in his heart. In fact, the county mansion had long stopped wanting to collect taxes from traveling merchants.

It’s still cost.

In order to collect taxes from traveling merchants, the county government had to set up officials to guard various official checkpoints. At the same time, these taxes had to be compiled and transported to Yongle City, which was a huge expense.

In fact, the taxes collected by the county government from traveling merchants were basically used to support tax collectors and consumed in transportation.

The real sources of income for the Duke's Mansion were the newly built workshops and trade with the Western Regions and Southern Liang.

Su Ling no longer wanted it.

But for the ministers in the Government Affairs Hall, this is also good news.

This can also be considered a "victory" in their fight for tax power.

Moreover, there was already a taxation system in the local area, and the extra costs originally borne by the county government were not an additional burden on the administrative system.

Su Ling spread his fingers and said:

"But according to the commercial taxes paid by traveling merchants and sedentary merchants last year, the commercial taxes paid by traveling merchants last year accounted for 50% of all commercial taxes. The county government should collect 50% of the commercial taxes from them."

Hearing this, Su Chao understood Su Ling's thoughts. So you are here to get something for free?

The blame for taxation falls on the government affairs hall and the household department, but you, the inner treasury, get to reap the benefits?
Su Chao immediately expressed his objection and said:
"You can't calculate the accounts like this! The expenses of the tax collectors, the tax cards, and the transportation costs, how can these money be counted? The Ministry of Revenue also has costs!"

Su Suan also said:
"Business taxes are complicated, and there are many tax cards in the world. These are all huge expenses!"

With someone to back him up, Su Chao immediately said:

"Seventy to thirty, the county mansion takes thirty percent of the commercial tax, and the rest goes to the Ministry of Revenue!"

In this way, the important officials of Guanzhong started round after round of verbal battles with the vendors bargaining in the vegetable market.

In the end, Su Ling was "no match for four hands" and finally "gave in", and finally accepted the 70:30 distribution ratio.

However, Su Ling also secured the privilege of tax exemption for the merchant caravans under the county mansion, and finally completed this tax reform.

The establishment of a new era often begins with these quarrels. Any system is improved step by step through quarrels, and finally becomes corrupt as the administration deteriorates, and finally is torn down and rebuilt in a new era.

When the tax collection mechanism in Guanzhong began to fully extract output and transport it all to the front line, Erzhu Rong finally led his troops back to Jinyang.

After all, this was the place where he started his career. After returning to Jinyang, Erzhu Rong felt much more relaxed.

He once again thought of moving the capital to Jinyang.

But when he thought of Su Ze at Yanmen Pass, he gave up the idea.

Hearing that Su Ze only took over Yanmen Pass and did not attack Xiurong, Erzhu Rong felt more relieved. It seemed that Su Ze was not ready and had no intention of fighting a decisive battle with him.

However, after losing Yanmen Pass, Jinyang is no longer safe, and troops will need to be left behind to protect it.

Erzhu Rong was very depressed. His morale had already been greatly dampened by the failure to capture Yubi City for a long time. Now that he had lost Yanmen Pass, he was attacked from all sides, which added to the pressure of dividing his troops for garrison.

After the Northern Song Dynasty lost Yanmen Pass, Taiyuan Prefecture became the northern defense center. From then on, the entire Shanxi defense line was unstable and was repeatedly invaded by the Liao Kingdom, which sometimes even reached Henan. Eventually, the Liao Kingdom bore enormous military pressure and had to support a million imperial troops, which dragged down the finances.

From then on, Bingzhou was no longer the rear area and troops had to be stationed there. Erzhu Rong felt that Su Ze's noose was tightening day by day.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to break the impasse yet.

Let’s deal with the current trouble first.

Erzhu Rong began to meet with officials from Jinyang and was also busy meeting with Xiurong's elders.

But unexpectedly, when he met Xiurong's fellow villagers this time and listened to their crying, Erzhu Rong's fists hardened again.

(End of this chapter)