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Chapter 345: Commercial Taxes and Officials Pay Grain

This undoubtedly means that Emperor Zhu Youxiao's imperial power has stronger guarantees.

But for the entire Ming Empire, the standing army needed was naturally more than 100,000.

In the future, Henan can expand east and west while fighting south and advance west, and the mobile forces, defensive forces and internal guards of the navy and land armies must have a total of one million elite troops.

Even now, there are still hundreds of thousands of soldiers in each border army, as well as battalions and guards in various places.

Zhu Youxiao hopes that after his 100,000 personal troops were trained in the future, he would nationalize these border troops, battalions and guards in various places, so that the soldiers and generals would be separated, and both soldiers and generals belonged to the country, and no longer had private soldiers, or even private soldiers of military generals, or servants, could have combat effectiveness.

However, the biggest challenge in doing so is not the opposition of the generals, but the issue of money.

Because the generals of the Ming Dynasty were different from the vassal states of the Tang Dynasty, they did not have much fiscal revenue.

Most of the land in these generals are in border towns in the north, and the output is not large, so it is still difficult to support a large family. Naturally, relying on the income from land, we can't raise so many people who need to eat and drink every day.

Therefore, the main income of these generals is to deduct military pay and get empty salary.

In addition, although their servants were able to fight, they were not many, so it was difficult to threaten the court.

Moreover, because there are too many generals and their power is very scattered, the court can also check and balance separately.

This is why the Li family in Liaodong, namely the Li Chengliang family, was so powerful in Liaodong. Li Rubai and Li Ruzhen were still taken to the capital to be punished by the court.

The Ming generals were completely difficult to control in history and had to wait until after the Chongzhen period.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao now has enough money to pay enough military pay and rewards. In addition, he gives military generals enough legitimate income so that he does not have to risk skinning and deduct military pay or even get empty salary. Even soldiers who are not military generals can become warriors.

Even the current infantry in the garrison must know that when the military pay is sufficient at the beginning of the country, they dare to use spears to rush to the cavalry.

"But now the annual income of the imperial court's treasury has been mainly used for people's livelihood, education, construction, research and development of various skills, manufacturing of new equipment, and promotion of new crops. Although it is not enough to make ends meet, coupled with the compensation from Japan, the treasury can still have more than 10 million reserves. This is reserved for emergency needs, such as disaster relief. Therefore, after the Beijing camp was rectified, the military system and military system of the garrison were immediately reformed to raise millions of elite soldiers belonging to the country. With the current treasury income, it is still not enough. Please give your Majesty a clear guide!"

Therefore, when Zhu Youxiao proposed to reform the military system, Fang Congzhe raised financial difficulties.

"We still have to open up wealth! The court needs to raise more soldiers and launch a war in the future to completely eliminate Hu's problems. These will require more money!"

Zhu Youxiao nodded and thought to himself.

For a moment, Zhu Youxiao thought about raising commercial tax.

With the current commercial scale of the Ming Dynasty, once the commercial tax is increased, it will definitely bring a lot of taxes to the court.

But among the people who do business nowadays, they have a little bit of scale and pay a considerable amount of commercial taxes, and many of them are even his own people as the emperor.

Therefore, if Zhu Youxiao wanted to increase commercial taxes across the country, there would undoubtedly be a lot of opposition.

But now for Zhu Youxiao, there are not many better ways to increase the annual tax revenue of the court in addition to raising commercial taxes.

All the homes that should be copied have been copied.

Now no one dares to oppose him as an emperor. In addition, he has limited homes to be confiscated, and as the emperor, he naturally cannot search his house at will without any questions about the rules.

The land tax income after clearing the acres of land has reached its limit.

As for external income, they also borrowed grain and asked for compensation, but these were all one-time, but the trade and trade continued to allow the Ming Dynasty to make profits from outside.

However, if the commercial tax is not increased and the sea is not completely opened up, the income obtained by the imperial court through foreign trade will only be limited to the profit distribution of the official industries and part of the tariff income.

"The annual income of the national treasury must continue to grow. We cannot just live by the current annual income far exceeds that of the previous dynasty. We have to live by the time we spend our time! What are the best strategies for increasing annual income in the future?"

Zhu Youxiao asked his important officials for this reason.

As an emperor with real power, he naturally cannot express his own ideas first, as it will cause most officials to obey his ideas against their will.

After all, the cabinet masters and ministers present, all the smart guys who are not very smart, have the ability to observe their words and expressions and change their minds.

So, Zhu Youxiao asked first.

"In the opinion of the minister, the exemption of gentry should be abolished, and officials and gentry should be paid together to serve as employees."

At this time, Fang Congzhe replied first.

He knows himself better than anyone else, the emperor who has been with him for six years.

Fang Congzhe knew that his Majesty was a restless Lord.

He is determined to innovate and has great ambitions. He wants the country to become stronger and stronger, and wants the people to become richer. In this way, the court will have to earn more and more income without increasing the burden on the people.

Therefore, Fang Congzhe had long thought about how to give the emperor a solution to increase fiscal revenue.

And this solution is to pay food together with officials and gentry.

Not raising commercial taxes.

Fang Congzhe naturally knew that raising commercial taxes could bring more taxes to the court and not affect the common people.

But Fang Congzhe didn't do that.

It’s not because he is selfish and is unwilling to raise commercial taxes for his own interests.

Because of the benefits the emperor gave him, even if the commercial tax has changed from thirty taxes to three taxes and one tax, it will not affect the wealth of other families.

Fang Congzhe did not raise commercial tax because he also knew how difficult it would be to increase commercial tax across the country and how turmoil it would cause. After all, the powerful and noble gentry in the world, regardless of civil and military officials, make money with low tax rates. There are also many ordinary scholars and civilians who rely on low commercial tax payments and become richer and richer. If the commercial tax is suddenly raised, there will be a lot of opposition.

Fang Congzhe didn't dare to take this risk yet, because he was afraid that he would mess up the country.

Therefore, Fang Congzhe proposed to pay food together with officials and gentry, completely abolishing the privileges and exemptions of powerful and noble gentry.

In Fang Chengzhe's view, doing this is much less resistance than raising commercial taxes. After all, this will not affect the interests of ordinary people and powerful gentry who rely on business.

Moreover, Fang Congzhe felt that it would be better for the court to collect as much food as possible than for more silver.

Because if grain is scrambled through the Grain Industry Bureau in the hands of the imperial court, it can produce more profits. After all, the Ming Dynasty's commodities are more popular now than before, and more silver has flowed into the Ming Dynasty, causing the silver price to continue to fall, while the grain price is still rising. It is obvious that holding grain is more cost-effective than holding silver.
Chapter completed!
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