In the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Zhu Cilang was discussing tax matters with a group of cabinet assistants.

Sufficient taxes in the world are still a necessary condition for maintaining the normal operation of a country, let alone in troubled times.

In troubled times, the court must maintain its prestige, and the military expenditure alone is a large amount of money. Of course, this money must also be drawn from taxes.

Although Zhu Cilang still has nearly ten million taels of taels in the treasury, it is only enough for the army to spend two or three years, and it is always right to prepare for the future.

The existing tax system of the Ming Dynasty can basically be divided into several major parts.

A large part is agricultural tax, which is basically the main source of tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the taxation model of agricultural tax is very unreasonable. Officials and gentry and vassal kings are exempted from taxes, and all taxes are raised and beaten to the common people. High taxes, coupled with drought plagues and locust plagues, can easily cause self-cultivated farmers to go bankrupt, and then gather into large groups of refugees. If someone is tempted, a team like Li Chuang will be pulled out.

If you want to reform the agricultural tax, you must remove the bad rules of exempting taxes from land under the names of officials and gentry, otherwise no matter how you change it, you will change the soup and not change the medicine.

Except for the largest part of agricultural tax, the commercial tax is the commercial tax.

Commercial taxes are very complex and have many types, but the commission ratio is not high. In addition to collusion between officials and businessmen, most of the money was eventually put into the pockets of officials, and the court did not get much.

Of course, there is a very special category in commercial tax, that is, maritime tax.

In essence, Shanghai tax is also a type of commercial tax, but because the collection objects are mainly large and small sea merchants, they can be listed separately.

I'm afraid only Zhu Cixuan and Zheng's family know about the prosperity of the sea tax.

Needless to say, Zhu Cilang has come from later generations to know all the secrets.

As for the Zheng family, I am afraid that the biggest beneficiary of the collection of maritime taxes.

According to later literature, at the end of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong could earn 10 million taels of silver by drawing maritime taxes a year.

The Ming Dynasty's various taxes and levies were not collected in a year, but they did not receive so much tax.

It is not an exaggeration to describe the Zheng family as wealthy as a rival country.

So in the later period, Zheng Zhilong was disdainful of going overseas to do business, but instead took charge of Fujian and supported the huge navy by collecting taxes.

For today's Ming Dynasty, maritime tax is definitely an important source of income.

However, judging from the previous situation where Zhu Cilang and Zheng Zhilong agreed to open the Huangming Chamber of Commerce, they are not very optimistic.

From May to November, within half a year, Zheng Zhilong successively delivered a dividend of one million taels of silver to Nanjing.

If we calculate based on Zheng Zhilong's earnings of 10 million taels per year, he should share 5 million taels per year, and in half a year it should be 2.5 million taels per year.

But Zheng Zhilong only sent one million taels of silver, which showed that Zheng Zhilong only took out 20% of the profit to the court rather than 50% agreed by both parties.

This is simply a beggar!

Of course, Zhu Cilang was extremely angry inside.

Taxation was originally a privilege of the court, and Zhu Cilang is now sharing this power with the Zheng family. Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhilong was a lie to disobey the court and deceived the court as a fool.

In other words, those cabinet ministers who have never seen the profits of maritime trade will be surprised when they see the one million taels sent by Zheng Zhilong to send people to deliver them.

But with Zhu Cixuan's current strength, he cannot turn against Zheng Zhilong, and a war may break out at any time in Huguang and Shandong. At this time, the rear must not be in chaos.

Zhu Cilang could only consider drawing taxes from other coastal provinces first. After all, the Ming Dynasty was not just Fujian, just around the sea.

Zhu Cilang divided sea trade into two types: north and south.

The south is definitely going to the countries in Southeast Asia. You can start from Guangdong and bypass Fujian.

As for the north, there are more options.

Zhejiang, Shandong and even Tianjin can do it.

In addition to trade between provinces, the most common sea trade in the north is to trade with Japan.

Previously, this part of the sea trade was mainly monopolized by the Zheng family, so Zhu Cixuan decided to step in and negotiate with the Japanese side in the name of the court.

This move also reminds Zheng Zhilong that the Zheng family's imperial court can collect maritime taxes.

Of course, if you add all these together, you may not receive two or three million taels a year.

After all, the imperial court has just started in this field and is not as good as the Zheng family, who has been in this industry for more than ten years.

The sea trade comparison is the channel. Apart from having an advantage in the great sense, the court did not have much to take advantage.

But you have to try to do this. Because the gap will become bigger and bigger if you don’t do it.

Just like the navy, if Zhu Cixuan did not order the Longjiang Shipyard to do its best to build warships, how could the team of the Denglai Navy be built?

The maritime tax collection takes effect quickly, but it is probably difficult to reach the peak of the Zheng family without a few years.

What makes Zhu Cilang the most trouble is the mining tax.

During the Wanli period, he set up mining supervisors in various places, specifically responsible for the collection of mining taxes.

Since the mining supervisors were all in-house ministers who came out of the palace and were very loyal to the court and the emperor, the court could still receive a considerable amount of taxes every year.

But this hindered the interests of the scholars and officials and the Donglin Party and was criticized by the civil servants.

Because of the charge of mining tax, the civil servant's spitting star almost spitted on the face of Emperor Wanli.

However, Emperor Wanli is tough enough and has never been timid. If you criticize you, I will accept me. It is precisely because of the maritime tax that Emperor Wanli can afford hundreds of thousands of border troops and fight three major levies.

But when Zhu Cilang's cheap father, Emperor Chongzhen, ascended the throne, everything changed.

You said it would be fine if you cut off the Jinyiwei, but even the mining tax was abolished.

It is because the civil servant class advocates that the emperor will not compete with the people for profit.

Well, the emperor will no longer compete with the people for profits, and all these benefits have been seized by the officials and gentry classes.

Zhu Cilang ordered a preliminary investigation and found that most of the closed mines have not stopped mining, but are in full swing.

The local officials and gentry classes are mined.

This really slapped Emperor Chongzhen in the face.

Of course, Zhu Cilang was not prepared to let these borers dig out the corners of the Ming Dynasty and steal the wealth of the Ming Dynasty.

But he was not going to follow the old path of Emperor Wanli. Don’t you think the imperial court’s withdrawal of mine tax was to compete for profit with the people? Well, I won’t withdraw taxes anymore, and I will directly take charge of the procurement and consumable!

Needless to say, gold ore and copper ore are all filled with the national treasury and the treasury. Other minerals are completed in one-stop form from mining to sales, completely in the name of the court.

This is equivalent to declaring in disguise that the Ming minerals belong to the court, and that civil officials who only ask others to shut up their mouths with double standards.

This is also what Zhu Cilang has always wanted to do but failed to do. Because he had insufficient troops before, he was afraid that the situation would be difficult to suppress.

Now Zhu Cilang doesn’t need to worry. If someone takes the lead in causing trouble, he will be arrested and imprisoned. Some people raise troops to cause chaos and lead the army to slaughter. It is also time for those fat-headed borers to wake up. The interests of the court are above everything else!

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