Daming Military Empire

Chapter 566 Tax Issue
Zhu Cijiong, as always, encouraged everyone to speak. No matter what he said was right or wrong, he did not hesitate to praise him as a way to show his appreciation. Under his guidance, everyone made more or less suggestions, some were very pertinent, and some were a bit inappropriate. actual.

In fact, he didn't expect everyone to be able to clarify the functions of the two departments. After all, these people have no experience in later generations, and they don't have a comprehensive understanding of what new things such as postal services, telegraphs, newspapers, and railways can do. Well, he just wanted to guide everyone to think more. In this way, he told the experience of later generations so that everyone could understand it better.

After Qin Weiming finished his last speech with his encouragement, he nodded and concluded: "Everyone said it is very good. Postal services, telegraphs, newspapers, and railways can indeed bring a lot of convenience to the people. The two government departments of transportation and communication bring all the conveniences that everyone mentioned to the people?"

After all, Zhu Cijiong looked directly at Zhang Pu, the meaning was obvious, that is to let him talk about his thoughts.

Seeing the emperor looking over, Zhang Pu had no choice but to bite the bullet and said, "I feel that we need to recruit a lot of people first, because it depends on human effort."

Zhu Cijiong nodded approvingly and said, "Well said, indeed we need to recruit a lot of people."

After that, he looked at Wu Jianye again.

Seeing the emperor looking over, Wu Jianye could only bite the bullet and said: "My minister feels that it will cost a lot of money, such as trains, railways, telegraph machines, telegraph lines, and even everyone's salary. These will cost a lot of money."

Zhu Cijiong nodded in approval again and said, "That's right, it does cost a lot of money, so where does the money come from?"

After finishing speaking, he looked at Cheng Guoxiang again.

Now Cheng Guoxiang, Minister of the Household Department, is stumped. Where did the Household Department get so much money? The annual military expenses can't be covered, and the emperor has to pay for it!

He hesitated for a moment, and said awkwardly: "This, this, the emperor, you also know that the Ministry of Households can't afford so much money."

Zhu Cijiong still nodded in approval and said, "Well, you're right, the Ministry of Household Affairs really can't afford so much money, and the salary alone is not a small amount for a year."

When everyone heard the words, they were all dumbfounded, the Ministry of Households couldn't come up with money and the emperor also praised it, what's going on?

Seeing everyone's expressions, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help touching his forehead, and said in embarrassment: "What Zhongruo said is the truth, the Ministry of Households really doesn't have so much money, and I will tell you how to solve this money problem today."

The issue of money is more or less known to everyone here. Ming’s taxes are not enough to support more than 200 million troops. If the emperor hadn’t posted money, let alone the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Communications. Even the salaries of the existing officials in the imperial court will not be paid out. This is simply a huge hole. How can the emperor plug it?

Zhu Cijiong sorted out his thoughts, and said slowly: "I haven't thought about the issue of having no money in the household department for a day or two. Logically speaking, both the territory and the wealth of the Ming Dynasty now far exceed those at the beginning of the dynasty. Why, at that time, Ming could support more than 200 million troops and guarantee the salaries of officials, but now it can’t even make up the military expenses of more than 200 million troops?”

There is actually an objective reason for this problem, that is, the army’s rations and officials’ salaries have both increased, more than doubled. However, compared to the current level of prosperity of Ming Dynasty, the increase in rations and salaries is not too much , Because everyone has money, we can't let the frontline soldiers and court officials be poorer than ordinary people.

Zhu Cijiong did not expect anyone to answer, but continued: "Without money, it proves that the tax collection by the household department is not enough. There are two reasons for not enough tax. One is that the tax that should be collected is confiscated, and the other is that the tax that should be collected is not enough. Taxes are not generated where taxes are generated.”

This seems to be a simple truth, but where are the taxes that should be collected and confiscated, and where are the places where taxes should be generated and where taxes are not generated?
Zhu Cijiong took a breath, and continued: "After thinking for a long time, I finally realized that the taxes that should be collected are confiscated, mainly because the taxes of several business houses of the royal family are confiscated. Businesses pay taxes like ordinary businesses, so the account will be evened out immediately, and even excluding the army's food and officials' salaries, there will be a little surplus every year."

When everyone heard this, they were dumbfounded again. The emperor's own business would have to pay taxes like ordinary businesses. This person present really hadn't thought about it. It's all the emperor's business, what kind of tax does the emperor's business pay?
Seeing everyone's surprised expressions, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help shaking his head and said: "I know what everyone thinks, but I want to tell you that it is wrong to think that way. The royal business is also a business, and it does business like the common people. Paying taxes not only has no benefits, but also has many disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is the formation of unfair competition. Originally, the profit of ordinary goods is only [-] to [-] percent. The royal business does not have to pay this half of the tax, which means that the cost is reduced by half. Cheng, how did the businesses opened by ordinary people compete? If they fail to compete, it will be difficult to develop. Therefore, no matter what industry is in Daming, the royal family is the only one, and other businesses opened by ordinary people can’t keep up. Is this beneficial? Of course No, there are not only no advantages but also great disadvantages. How many people are there in total for the royal firm, how many ordinary people are there in Ming Dynasty, and how many people are engaged in business? Thousands of times or even ten thousand times, so how much more taxes can be paid, have you calculated it?"

When everyone heard the words, they suddenly realized that, indeed, if the private merchants are allowed to develop, then Daming’s taxes will increase many times. It is indeed of no benefit to hold down ordinary firms all the time.

Now the people in charge of those royal firms finally know why the emperor asked them to come. It turned out that the main reason was to let them pay taxes. Distressed, what are they distressed about, the only thing they have to worry about is whether the royal firm will lose its advantage and cannot compete with ordinary firms.

Regarding this, they are actually not very worried, because the royal houses are huge, and the ordinary houses cannot compete. They did take advantage of the advantage of not paying taxes in the past to overwhelm the commoner houses in terms of price. It does not mean that they have no other means. , but this method is the most trouble-free.

Even if they pay the same taxes, the heads of the royal firms here are confident that they can do better than ordinary firms. They can take advantage of too many advantages, not to mention the sales outlets throughout Daming and even the entire world, just the purchases throughout Daming The system allows them to buy all kinds of goods at the lowest price, which is incomparable to ordinary shops alone, not to mention convenient logistics, huge contacts, abundant capital, etc., with a little effort, they can compare Ordinary firms are much stronger, it's just that they didn't pay much attention to these aspects before.

In this way, paying taxes is really not harmful to the royal business, at least they all know to use formal means to enhance their competitiveness.

(End of this chapter)