Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

This year's commercial tax reform was extremely rough and wild, and many merchants were thrown into the prefecture and county jails.

What's worse, many merchants were beheaded for refusing to pay commercial taxes.

Even the cabinet ministers present thought that this new policy was just to make profits from the business class.

But Zhang Shikang never thought so.

“First, I think that the merchant permit should be abolished so that merchants can do business more freely.

The imperial court should also stop suppressing merchants, for example, not allowing people to wear silk and satin, which is very unreasonable.

They work hard to earn money and pay taxes, so we don’t care what they wear and eat.” Zhang Shikang thought for a moment and said.

Commercial tax is a responsibility, but encouraging industry and commerce is an obligation. For such a huge court to rely entirely on agricultural tax, it is really picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons.

Look at the weak Song. He is so weak that he gets slapped by this person and kicked by that person. But it must be said that he is definitely good at managing economics.

"Don't stare at me, everyone, especially you, Lord Hai. As the Minister of Revenue, you are in charge of the taxation of the whole country.

How does the Ming Dynasty compare to the Song Dynasty? They can collect 50 to 60 million strings of cash in commercial taxes each year. How can we lag behind?

I know what you all want to say. It is nothing more than that merchants are the lowest class of people, and according to etiquette, it is beyond the rules for them to wear silk and satin.

Wake up everyone, what's the point of doing all those things if you can't get the money?

Let’s surpass the Song Dynasty economically first.”

He said things to the other party that left them speechless. Zhang Shikang had been in the court for more than a year. Although he seldom attended court, he had many quarrels with these guys.

He roughly knew why these people frowned. It was nothing more than the Confucian saying that everything is inferior except for reading.

He really wanted to say to Hai Zhongqi and others, Wake up, sir, you’ve eaten shit!

After he finished speaking, even Emperor Chongzhen frowned.

"Shikang, merchants value profit. If we encourage people to do business like this, it may affect the atmosphere in the future!" Emperor Chongzhen said with a little concern.

Reading too many Confucian classics can lead to rigid thinking, and even Emperor Chongzhen was not immune.

Scholars all have their own reasons for despising businessmen.

In their minds, pursuing profits is not a good thing. On a deeper level, if everyone pursues money, the people’s morals will become materialistic and not simple and honest.

On a superficial level, the sages said that scholars should treat money as dirt.

They have read so many books by saints that even they themselves have been brainwashed and believed them. But is this really the case?

If a scholar really treats money as dirt, then what is he busy with this year?

Help those scholars pick up manure?

“I ask Your Majesty, do you like silver?

Is the more than 100 million taels of silver in the national treasury beautiful?"

Although Zhang Shikang was asking his elder brother Chongzhen, he was actually also asking the cabinet ministers such as Haizhong.

The cabinet ministers did not want to answer Zhang Shikang's questions and pretended not to hear them. Emperor Chongzhen was more honest.

"You can only get things done if you have money. Without money, even if I am the emperor, I can't do anything."

"Yes, even Your Majesty knows the benefits of silver. So what if the common people like silver?

I have killed so many officials this year, and which one of them didn't always talk about money? But shouldn't they still be greedy and take what they want?

In my opinion, hypocrisy is the worst trend in the current situation.

Since Your Majesty, officials and people all like silver, there is nothing to be embarrassed about.

The imperial court allows everyone to like silver, and it’s okay to say it, but they have to earn silver according to the rules. This is what the world should be told most.

Didn’t the sage once say, “A gentleman loves money but gets it in a proper way?”

Encouraging business and providing convenience for merchants will not only make business prosperous, but also allow the court to collect more commercial taxes, which is a good thing. "Zhang Shikang said without hesitation.

He always likes to put on the table what others are embarrassed to say. It is no exaggeration to say that last year's court officials were full of hypocrisy and hypocrisy.

You did it, so why are you not allowed to talk about it? If there is anything he is embarrassed to say, he will say it.

Encourage business and regulate commerce. The court will set the rules and grasp the general direction, and leave the rest to the market to verify. If anything is inappropriate, it will be changed.

Zhang Shikang felt that anyone with a little social experience in the future would understand such a simple idea.

Zhang Shikang sometimes felt that most of the people he met in the Ming Dynasty were quite smart, some even smarter than him, but in some aspects of thinking, they were very stupid.

"What do you think, my fellow ministers, is what Marquis Guanjun said reasonable?" Emperor Chongzhen did not give a direct answer, but asked everyone instead.

Zhang Shikang actually said it very bluntly. Silver is a good thing. If you don't think it is, then don't buy anything or eat.

The Cabinet Chief Minister Li Banghua was still struggling, but the Minister of Finance Hai Zhongqi, who had been frowning, answered first:

"Your Majesty, this policy is not a bad one. Encouraging industry and commerce will help the court increase tax revenue. The court only needs to take advantage of the situation. I will ask my colleagues in the Ministry of Revenue to draft a set of business regulations based on the actual situation."

"I second the proposal."

Several other cabinet ministers finally agreed, and Emperor Chongzhen immediately approved the resolution.

After the resolution was passed, Zhang Shikang took out a thick notebook from behind him.

That book is a collection of the problems he encountered in the process of suppressing the rebellion this year.

Although Zhang Shikang loved to eat and play, he never neglected the things that needed to be done. Whether it was tax reform or land reform, they were matters that affected the entire body.

The implementation of every national policy requires the assistance of other policies, and every change in a national policy requires the corresponding changes in other policies as well.

His notebook is a reflection and summary of the march.

“Your Majesty, this is my reflection on the New Deal this year. I think we should put the budget issue aside for now.

There are also many reform directions for next year, and these reforms involve all aspects of the Ming Dynasty.

If we don’t sort it out, we may not be able to make a budget at all.” Zhang Shikang said as he placed the document in front of Emperor Chongzhen.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately showed a gratified smile on his face. He was very interested in this book because he thought that every effort Zhang Shikang made could bring new vitality to the Ming Dynasty.

But when he opened the first page of the notebook, he was stunned.

But he saw that the words written on the notebook were crooked, and he couldn't even recognize many of them.

"You should practice your calligraphy well!" Emperor Chongzhen frowned and looked at it for a long time, but finally gave up.

"Hehe, I'm busy all day long, so I don't have the time to practice calligraphy." Zhang Shikang smiled and took the document back, deciding to give the speech himself.

"Well, the first one is the salt policy.

Although the Ming Dynasty implemented a salt and iron monopoly, the salt administration was almost entirely outsourced to salt merchants.

I have understood this clearly before. The big salt merchants transported grain to the nine border areas in exchange for salt permits from the imperial court. However, this policy has bred too much corruption, so I will not go into details here.

Previously, in order to reduce grain transportation costs, big salt merchants had established military farms around the nine borders and supplied grain nearby in exchange for salt permits. However, this year the imperial court took back all official and private fields and distributed them equally to the people.

The original salt administration mechanism was completely destroyed.

This policy is not good. Corruption is too serious and it is very likely to lead to land annexation. It must be changed.”

……