If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

Li Tiancheng's face burned with embarrassment. He had just said that merchants made only petty profits, but Zhou Wu immediately exposed their true colors. These damned families had actually been running such a lucrative business for hundreds of years.

“The three of them could buy top-quality warhorses from the herdsmen on the grasslands for no more than four strings of cash, but they could sell them to the imperial court for at least ten strings of cash. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. They often multiply the price of many things by several times, or even dozens of times.”

As Zhou Wu continued speaking, the veins on Li Tiancheng's forehead bulged out.

"These parasites, these vampires."

"Your Majesty, please calm down. In fact, I believe that merchants are driven by profit, and this is all due to market demand, so we can't really blame them."

"You mean, they've made no contribution to the empire through speculation and profiteering, yet they've gained all these benefits for nothing!"

“Your Majesty, these merchants have also made sacrifices. In places we cannot see, they travel through mountains and rivers, risking robbery, shipwrecks, and many other uncertainties. Moreover, as long as there is no monopoly, the price is determined by market demand, which is perfectly reasonable. However, the court has always forgotten one thing.”

Zhou Wu did not intentionally belittle the merchants; on the contrary, he fairly offered a small defense for them.

"what?"

"Taxes will be levied on merchants."

“Zhou Wu, you probably don’t know this, but we have always levied a transaction tax on merchants.”

Hearing Zhou Wu's conversation with his father, Li Junren seized the opportunity to chime in.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince, I know that the court levies taxes on merchants, but this tax law has major loopholes, which has caused the empire to lose a large portion of its tax revenue."

Zhou Wu himself was also a businessman. His subordinate Deng Yuanliang once told him that the taxation of merchants by the imperial court was basically just a formality. Merchants only needed to pay a fixed amount of tax every year. This tax was also set by the imperial court and was the same amount regardless of the size of the business. This amount was also quite low.

"A vulnerability? Tell me about it."

Li Tiancheng never took the initiative to care about the merchants' taxes, and neither did the officials in the court. Logically speaking, with so many officials in the court, it was impossible that not a single person had not noticed this loophole in the tax system.

Zhou Wu's final guess was that most court officials had some business dealings, so even if they found out, they wouldn't say anything. Besides, everyone was doing business, and if he said anything, wouldn't he offend everyone?

However, Zhou Wu was not afraid, because his base was not in the capital, and there would always be some pioneers when it came to national interests.

“The current business tax we are implementing is based on a fixed amount, regardless of what kind of business it is. This is very unreasonable. I suggest changing the fixed amount to the transaction amount and collecting it as a certain percentage.”

"That's simply impossible. With so many merchants in Dalong, how can you monitor their transaction amounts? Are you going to send people to watch them every day?"

Li Junren immediately retorted that the idea was good, but it was simply impossible to implement.

Li Tiancheng also looked at Zhou Wu with curiosity, wanting to see how the other party would defend himself.

"Actually, it's not difficult. First, we need to establish several different tiers of tax rates. The higher the transaction amount, the higher the tax rate. Then, all merchants must have an inventory management book. We will conduct random checks from time to time, and we will also conduct an inventory check at the end of each year..."

Although Zhou Wu wasn't a professionally trained accountant, he had already reached a high position in his previous life and had some understanding of finance. Therefore, it was enough for him to cope with this era.

"Zhou Wu, which department do you think should handle this matter?"

Zhou Wu's words had successfully piqued Li Tiancheng's interest, and he felt that it wasn't a bad idea. Li Junren was also deep in thought.

"Your Majesty, I think we should establish a separate tax department that is directly responsible to Your Majesty."

Taxation is a very sensitive area, especially since it involves the economy of the Great Dragon. It requires meticulousness, so it is best for the emperor to be in charge. If it were managed by multiple departments like other departments, not only would tax reform be difficult to implement, but it would also be difficult to guarantee that no one would be corrupt.

"Let me think about it. Go back and draft a detailed plan."

Li Tiancheng naturally understood the underlying meaning of Zhou Wu's words, but he also felt that Zhou Wu's words made sense. If he was not the direct superior of the tax department, then this action would be difficult to carry out.

However, although Zhou Wu's words made sense, many things were not so simple in reality, and Li Tiancheng still needed to consider them carefully, especially balancing the various forces.

"Um... Your Majesty, I am but a military man, and I am afraid I am not up to the task."

When Zhou Wu heard Li Tiancheng's words, he didn't react for a moment. He had only made a suggestion and didn't want to take the blame for it.

"So now you realize you're just a warrior? You were quite eloquent just now. It's settled then. Promote him to the rank of general in three days. Alright, I'm tired. You may leave."

Without giving Zhou Wu a chance to refute, Li Tiancheng directly ordered him to leave.

Upon leaving the palace, Li Junren surprisingly changed his attitude and instead began to humbly ask Zhou Wu about taxation.

"Zhou Wu, do you think this commercial tax is feasible? How much tax revenue could it generate for Dalong each year?"

"Your Highness, whether it succeeds or not depends on how determined His Majesty is. As for how much tax revenue it can bring to the Great Dragon each year, I can't say for sure, but I'm sure it will definitely exceed the agricultural tax."

"What, really?"

Li Junren had just begun to estimate in his mind how much tax revenue the commercial tax reform would bring to the Great Dragon Empire. He estimated that it would be about one-fifth of the agricultural tax, which would be enough to give the Great Dragon Empire an extra sum of money every year.

However, Zhou Wu's words shocked Li Junren. Commercial tax was higher than agricultural tax? This was something no one dared to imagine. You must know that Dalong's tax revenue now basically relied entirely on agricultural tax, and there weren't many other miscellaneous taxes.

"But Your Majesty, after merchants have contributed a large amount of tax revenue, the court should also slightly improve their social status so that they can..."

"Raise the social status of merchants? For thousands of years, the social hierarchy has been scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. If you suddenly want to elevate the status of merchants, it may cause a lot of trouble. Moreover, it will make people think that we are advocating and encouraging everyone to do business. Then who will still farm? If no one grows food in the country, what will we eat?"

Suddenly, Li Junren thought of a terrible problem: levying commercial taxes was fine, but raising the status of merchants should probably be postponed. If the state stepped in to raise the social status of merchants, wouldn't that be tantamount to indirectly encouraging people to go into business?

"Your Highness, your worries will not come true."

Zhou Wu wasn't worried at all about the question Li Junren raised: "Is doing business really that easy?"

"Why?"

"First, in terms of the system, when we set tax standards, we can take agricultural tax into account. When we raise the threshold for commercial tax, we can also appropriately lower the tax rate of agricultural tax."

In Zhou Wu's opinion, Li Junren's concerns were completely unnecessary. The farming mentality that had been deeply rooted in the land of Dalong for thousands of years could not be changed by a few words from anyone. There was no need for Li Tiancheng and Li Junren to worry about it.