Chapter 236 One tax ten
In the morning, Qin Lang’s land tax said that he could raise more than 10 million shi of grain for the court every year, but now he held up a salt shaker and said that he could raise 10 million guan in taxes for the court in the next year.
This tone is really too big.
Dai Zhou couldn't take it anymore, he put down his chopsticks and stood up.
"Even according to the previous estimate of Duke Yi, there are 20 million people in the world today. If the tax increase is tens of millions this year, doesn't it mean that each person will increase the tax by half? If a family is counted as four, wouldn't it be two tax increases for a family? tax? Double tax, do you know how heavy a burden it is? How many people can break their homes?"
"Dai Shenzheng, what you are talking about is the average. In fact, the consumption of salt is not calculated according to the average. Although everyone needs to eat salt, besides the daily cooking salt, there are many other salt consumption. Such as pickled vegetables, such as for livestock, etc.”
"Furthermore, salt taxation is not as simple as that. Salt can be divided into different grades according to different origins and different qualities, and then different taxes can be imposed. The price of ordinary salt eaten by the people is low and the tax is also low. For example This green salt must be of higher quality and higher price, and the tax is also higher!"
Qin Lang wants to levy a salt tax, and there are some opponents, but it is not very surprising.
After all, the salt government and salt tax have a long history.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to meet the needs of military expenditures for hegemony, Qi State Prime Minister Guan Zhong created the policy of Guanshanhai, nationalizing the resources of mountains, forests and seas, and salt and minerals were the first to bear the brunt. He created the earliest salt policy in China. The salt government at that time was a partial monopoly system, with private salt production as the mainstay and official salt production as a supplement, but all the salt in the industry had to be sold to the government, and then the government sold it uniformly, and the salt tax was directly included in the salt price.
Qi State also used the benefits of salt and iron to enrich the country and strengthen the army, becoming the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Afterwards, private salt production in the Qin State was taxed by the government, and then salt and iron monopoly in the Han Dynasty. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Wei and Jin Dynasties were salt monopoly, and the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties were tax collection systems.
Until the Sui Dynasty ended the Southern and Northern Dynasties and unified the world. After three hundred years of chaos and chaos, the country was re-established to rule the world, but the new policy of no monopoly and no salt tax was implemented.
Until now the Tang Dynasty is also followed.
In history, from the founding of the Sui Dynasty to the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a period of more than 130 years when there was no monopoly and no tax on salt.
People don’t need to eat high-priced salt, and there won’t be any desperate private salt dealers.
It has been more than forty years since the beginning of the Sui Dynasty. Now Qin Lang said that he would reopen the salt government. This is undoubtedly a big change.
Dai Zhou is actually right. No matter how Qin Lang's salt policy changes, it will not break away from the two aspects of salt monopoly or salt taxation, and these will lead to an increase in the price of salt. In the end, the salt tax is actually grafted onto the common people. It will become a new burden for the people.
Li Shimin was attracted by the huge number of tens of millions.
"Huailiang, tell me about your new salt policy?"
Qin Lang’s salt administration is actually the salt administration that matured after the mid-Tang Dynasty, that is, the five major links of civil system, government revenue, official sales, commercial transportation, and commercial sales. This can save government expenses and expand sales through salt merchant channels.
On-the-spot monopoly is a policy that combines tax with price. Privately produced salt is purchased by the government, and then the salt tax is included in the salt price and sold to salt merchants.
This can not only guarantee the salt tax, but also save the government's expenditure.
In Qin Lang's plan, the imperial court first had to check the salt farms in various places, and the government issued licenses and salt production licenses to each salt farm, and then they were qualified to mine salt and make salt. The salt they produced could only Sell to the government, private sale is prohibited.
Then the government sells the collected salt to salt merchants for them to sell.
Separate salt production from salt sales, add salt tax directly to the salt price, and sell salt to salt merchants, the tax has already been collected in advance.
In order to prevent salt merchants from raising salt prices and affecting people's livelihood, Qin Lang plans to add Changping salt to Changping warehouses like the grain in Changping warehouses. The supply of salt in remote areas is tight, and official warehouses directly sell salt at a low price to curb salt prices. In addition, salt warehouses are set up on the national traffic arteries, where the salt is lacking, the salt will be transferred there. In addition, smuggling investigations should be set up to crack down on smuggling salt dealers.
In this way, the imperial court has control over all stages of salt, which will ultimately not only ensure the collection of salt tax, but also prevent the price of salt eaten by the people from being too high.
"How much is the salt tax?" Fang Xuanling asked.
"Take the most common sea salt as an example. Before the disaster, the price of rice was one to five, and the highest price could reach one to ten."
During the most stable and prosperous Kaihuang period, a bucket of rice was often only about 20 yuan, and ordinary salt at that time even cost 10 yuan a bucket, which was half the price of rice. When it came to Daye, the price of rice rose steadily, while the price of salt rose slowly.
Because it is a disaster year, the price of grain is already abnormal. In Chang’an, half a meter is now 400 yuan, and the price of salt is now 100 yuan per bucket.
Salt is much cheaper than rice, but this ratio is not normal.
As long as it is not a year of famine, salt is always more expensive than rice.
"Your Majesty, in fact, the cost of mining and drying salt is not high. A bucket of ten yuan can already cover all the costs of mining, drying, processing, transportation and sales, and even includes a lot of profit."
In addition, all salt produced can only be sold to the imperial court.
"The imperial court purchased salt at a basic price of ten renminbi per bucket of salt, and then increased the tax by one hundred renminbi, and sold it to salt merchants at the price of one hundred and ten renminbi per bucket of salt."
The book of ten articles, plus one hundred taxes.
This tax rate made Li Shimin take a deep breath.
Dai Zhou and many other ministers were extremely opposed to it, thinking it was too absurd, and it was simply a money grab.
"The purchase price of a bucket of salt is ten renminbi, and the salt tax is 110 renminbi, so the salt merchants will have to pay for transportation and sales, and the price will definitely increase. How much will it be in the hands of the common people?"
Qin Lang said bluntly, "Businessmen definitely want to make money. I guess they will sell around 134 to 150."
"It costs ten yuan a bucket of salt to produce it, but the common people buy salt for one hundred and fifty yuan?"
Qin Lang didn't take it seriously, "Mr. Dai, please also pay attention. The imperial court does not monopolize or tax the salt industry, but it doesn't care about the salt industry. The resulting situation is that the salt market is chaotic and disorderly. Now the price of salt is as high as a hundred dollars, and the common people eat it. The salt money, but the imperial court didn’t get any benefits, and the merchants got it all, and even the salt that many common people bought was of poor quality.”
"The imperial government controls it, and after collecting taxes, it can also be used for the people. Although the price of salt bought by the people is a bit high, the imperial court can control the quality of salt and crack down on counterfeit and inferior salt through various links of supervision."
Salt is actually a poll tax in disguise, which of the emperor's ministers would not understand!
Qin Lang's land tax is essentially the tax per mu of land, and the tax is levied per mu of land. Now there is a salt tax, which is actually a tax per capita.
By the way, a salt farm tax will be levied on the salt farm owners, and it is even possible that Qin Lang will also collect a commercial tax on the salt merchants again.
The common people have to bear the high salt price of more than one hundred pennies a bucket, but on the other hand, the imperial court may get tens of millions of salt taxes a year.
Comparing the two sides, the emperor couldn't help being shaken.
The price of salt is high, but there is no tax on the price of salt, and the common people eat salt worth hundreds of dollars a bucket.
The price set by Qin Lang can’t be said to be insane. It was based on the actual situation and needs, and took an intermediate value. After all, the current price of salt is more than 100 yuan, but it must be much higher than normal years.
The specific gravity of salt is relatively high, and a bucket of salt converted into a catty in the Tang Dynasty was about 21 catties. Then, based on the final market price of 151 buckets, the actual cost of buying salt for the common people was about 7 yuan per catty, and the imperial court had a catty of 100 yuan per catty. The salt tax is about 5 yuan off.
Much cheaper than pork.
Compared with the salt tax and salt price after the mid-Tang Dynasty in history, and the salt tax and salt price of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties later, it is much lower. We must know that the average salt tax in the Song Dynasty reached about 23 Wen per catty, and before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the salt tax reached a high of 30 million taels of silver a year.
What Qin Lang promised to the emperor was that after the implementation of the salt monopoly system, the imperial court would be able to control the salt market so that it would not be chaotic and disorderly.
Salt is a must, and so is taxation.
Salt worth six to seven renminbi a catty, as long as the quality is not short of catties or adulterated, the common people will still be able to afford it. After all, although salt is expensive, the amount consumed is small.
A grown man may eat six or seven stones of grain a year, but at most ten catties of salt.
In a good year, the normal price of grain should be about 20 Wen a bucket, a stone of rice is two hundred dollars, and a stone of rice can be exchanged for about 30 catties of salt. This ratio is still lower than the salt price in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are many.
But the newly added salt tax is a huge amount for the Tang court, and it may far exceed the current rent adjustment and taxation income of the court.
The imperial court is the biggest beneficiary here, so who is the loser?
Naturally, the owners of the salt farms, and the salt merchants will also cut their profits greatly because of the restrictions, and all the salt farm owners and salt merchants are actually controlled by the nobles and tyrants in this period, that is to say, Qin Lang This knife actually cuts the entire current interest group.
After the salt monopoly, there will definitely be iron monopoly, wine monopoly, tea monopoly and other monopoly, and there will be mining taxes such as gold, silver, copper and iron to keep up.
Behind these industries are actually the same group of people.
Why did the Sui Dynasty stop salt and iron and not levy mining tax? In fact, after Yang Jian usurped the throne, he desperately needed to obtain the compromise supported by the nobles, gentry and powerful groups. If Yang Jian did not collect taxes, it would be equivalent to giving them many benefits in disguise, especially the tax system of rent and mediocrity, which is actually comprehensive. A policy of giving up profits to these aristocratic bureaucrats.
Under this compromise, Yang Jian received the support of all parties, quickly usurped the world of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, created and stabilized the Sui Empire, and won the prosperity of the Kaihuang.
But now, Qin Lang raised a knife and challenged this behemoth.
However, behind him is the current emperor Li Shimin.
(end of this chapter)