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Text Chapter 803 Ming Tariffs

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    Chapter 803 Ming Dynasty Tariff The maritime interests are so huge that it is unimaginable, but all the poor Ming Dynasty¡¯s maritime trade is still dominated by the poor ¡®tribute¡¯.  The Ming Dynasty was righteous, so righteous that this maritime trade repeatedly suffered losses.  The output of the Ming Dynasty was in short supply compared to the people's livelihood needs of various countries.  The Ming court refused to do so, and the people took the initiative to shoulder this responsibility.  Relying on the trade winds, these maritime merchants can go to sea once or twice a year to work on their own trading lines.  Setting off with special products from the Ming Dynasty, and then bringing special products from overseas back to the Ming Dynasty to sell, the profits would be unimaginable.  On some routes, there is a legend about a cargo and half a cargo of silver, which makes people salivate when they hear it, such as the route of raw silk to Japan.  There is no such thing as customs tax in Ming Dynasty. It can be said that smuggling is all done casually. This has made many merchants in the southeast very profitable.  As for the several forces at sea, they also know that many maritime merchants even need to buy annual passes and monthly passes as "protection fees" to ensure safety.  As long as a special flag is planted to let the thieves pass through, they will be safe.  They can tolerate these exploitations because they are much less than the taxes paid by the court.  The customs tax system of the Ming Dynasty did not exist at all as later generations said. It was quite nonsense. If nothing else, with how much the Ming emperors loved money, how could they give up this important source of income?  Daming Customs Tariff has gone through a long-term evolution process.  This process can be roughly divided into three stages: the first stage before Zhengde, when there was no customs tax; the second stage during the Zhengde and Jiajing years, when a 20% physical tax was levied; the third stage after the opening up of Longqing, where the import and export tax system gradually  Perfect, change from drawing physical objects to drawing silver.  In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, in view of the reality of "unrest on the sea frontier", was worried that Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen's remaining maritime forces would come back again, and in order to prevent harassment by Japanese pirates, he implemented a strict maritime ban policy.  As the saying goes, "Mingzu made it custom-made, and no pieces of it are allowed to go into the sea."  On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty needed "all nations to come to the court" to establish its image as the emperor who "acted on behalf of heaven". Therefore, as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang came to the throne, he sent envoys everywhere to "recruit" and ask the surrounding countries to "claim vassal status".  tribute".  As a result, various countries took the opportunity of "tribute" to conduct limited exchanges of goods with the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called "tribute trade" emerged.  The Ming court established a special shipping department just for tribute trade.  The function and purpose of establishing the Municipal Shipping Department is quite clear, that is, "to communicate with barbarians, suppress profiteers, and enforce laws and prohibitions, so as to eliminate their quarrels." The so-called "suppression of profiteers" means prohibiting private overseas trade;  "In compliance with the law and prohibition, we must implement it" means that the maritime prohibition policy can be effectively implemented.  In addition, our Ming Dynasty is generous.  What was pursued was the policy of "thick give and thin return", that is, in order to be consistent with the status of the emperor of the "Celestial Kingdom", the value of the items given back was far greater than the value of the tribute. When Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty came, another one was added on this basis.  Thickening', so the tribute trade is basically a loss-making transaction, and where does the tax collection come from.  And among the tribute envoys, there were many businessmen with a large amount of personal belongings.  Naturally, they all aimed to make profits. In addition to trading in the Huitong Pavilion and the Shipping Department, they also conducted illegal transactions on the way to Beijing or elsewhere.  The Ming court condoned most of these prohibited matters and did not impose taxes.  With the promotion of Zheng He's voyages to the West, the number of countries and regions that came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty quickly increased to more than 30.  When Zheng He returned to China from his voyages to the West, missions from 17 countries and regions came to China with Zheng He.  During Zheng He's sixth voyage to the West, missions from 16 countries and regions returned with Zheng He.  This is truly an unprecedented event.  Under such circumstances, the trade volume of foreign missions in China is naturally very large.  The Ming Dynasty not only pursued the policy of "those who receive favors but not those who receive gifts", but also exempted all gifts from taxes, which resulted in "gifts being given out every year and the treasury being empty", which became a heavy burden for the country.  Therefore, some ministers repeatedly reported to Ming Chengzu that they should at least tax the personal belongings incidental to the tribute envoys, but they were all rejected by Ming Chengzu.  Ming Chengzu probably was looking for Emperor Jianwen or had a rust in his mind, so he directly said: "Business tax collectors, the country suppresses and drives away the poor people, how can it be beneficial! Now the Yi people come from afar to admire their righteousness, but they want to invade their interests."  , How much is the gain? And the loss is probably tens of millions!" Completely rejected.  This is such a grand statement. How much more money can be spent on customs tax? I even saved them the round-trip sea ticket, but I still care about this little money!  This is also the fundamental reason why Zheng He's heroic voyage to the West was ultimately unpopular and failed again and again.  Therefore, until Zhengde, the Ming Dynasty had no taxation in tribute trade.  After Chenghua, Dahai merchants who were prohibited from traveling privately were seen from time to time.  They made huge profits from the overseas smuggling trade, so the scale of smuggling became larger and larger, making it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to guard against it.  This made Zhengde realize that instead of letting them carry out smuggling trade secretly, it would be better to impose some taxes on them.  So the customs in the Ming Dynasty began to collect taxes when it was in Zhengde.  The way of taxation is to draw points.  The first draw ratio is directly half.  This tax rate is high enoughYes, it was directly divided into half, and finally it was slowly reduced until it reached 20%.  Originally, the system of Ming Dynasty was good.  There is no longer a policy of seclusion.  Trade between Europe and the Ming Dynasty also began.  Everything is developing on the normal track.  But Japanese pirates, extremely annoying creatures, came again. In the second year of Jiajing (1523), two "tribute battles" took place in Ningbo where Japanese tribute envoys "competed with each other about authenticity". This battle killed many innocent Ming Dynasty officials.  Soldiers and civilians were killed or taken prisoner. "The Japanese in the great earthquake in central Zhejiang must have underestimated China."  Causes coastal tremors.  Emperor Jiajing said, "The Japanese invaders arose from ships in the market, so they stopped them."  As a result, the shipping companies in Zhejiang and Fujian were dismissed.  Although the Guangdong Shipping Department was not dismissed, in order to prevent private traders from coming to trade and causing trouble, even tribute trade was prohibited.  The tariffs at this stage have also drawn a line.  Zhu Youxiao had to say that the Japanese had done a lot of harm to China!  Then, when Emperor Longqing came to the throne, because of the lesson that "when cities are open, bandits will turn to merchants, and when cities are banned, merchants will turn into bandits", he immediately announced after taking the throne that he would partially open the sea ban in Zhangzhou, Fujian: "Longqing changed the Yuan Dynasty (1567), Fujian  The governor of the capital, Tu Zemin, cleared the sea and allowed trade in both the east and west oceans." [10 Naturally, there were some limitations to Longqing's opening up. For example, maritime merchants were not allowed to go to Japan, and they were not allowed to sell copper, iron, saltpeter, sulfur and other contraband.  At that time, the Ming Dynasty had already organized clever measures to boycott Japanese goods. Alas, Zhu Youxiao didn¡¯t know whether his compatriots in later generations still insisted on boycotting Japanese goods.  Then came the coastal shipping companies and more institutions.  The system is in place, but problems such as how to collect it, who will collect the tax, tax evasion, etc. continue to arise. The problem of actually collecting it from the national treasury is really confusing.  Starting from the 22nd year of Wanli Dynasty (1594), each Fujian government took turns sending an official to Yuegang to supervise wages to prevent hidden deception.  In the twenty-seventh year of Wanli (1599), tax envoys came to Fujian, and the customs duties in Yuegang were supervised by eunuchs.  In the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (1606), the eunuchs stopped supervising the Yuegang customs duties (this was mentioned in the previous article, they were mine supervisors and tax supervisors, but unfortunately, Emperor Wanli could not serve as ministers.) Instead, they were sent out by Zhangzhou Prefecture every year  One official is responsible for managing tax collection matters.  The establishment of the Governor's Pay Hall has been maintained until now.  Only when Chongzhen arrived, the world was in turmoil, Yuegang was in decline, and there was not much tax to collect, so the Governor's Pay Hall was closed.  But the governor's salary office only turned over more than 20,000 taels every year.  ??The other agency that collects customs revenue is the Guangdong Shipping Department. This agency was more straightforward and moved directly to Macau. Finally, a tax package system was established-the annual tax payment was 20,000 gold.  The interests at sea are unimaginably huge, and the network of relationships involved is even more complicated. There are conflicts and combinations. There is collusion between government and businessmen, business and stealing. There are all kinds of rules and unspoken rules. Doing business while fighting is a good thing.  Lively scene.  But there is a key point here, but no one wants the emperor to know what happened at sea. Once the emperor reaches out his hand, the consequences will be disastrous.  From the appointment of Yuan Keli to the Leiden Navy, and then to the establishment of the Leiden Navy's personal army, the emperor's hand has been stretched longer and longer.  This is a bad signal for the merchants in the southeast. If the emperor were to fight with the Netherlands or Portugal, the maritime overlords along the southeast coast, it doesn't matter who wins or loses, but after the war, the emperor will definitely not let go of the sea.  That's the most important thing.  So some people tried their best to stop it.  Some even came up with a funny excuse, that is, once the war breaks out, the customs revenue will be gone.  This statement almost made people beat him to death. An income of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands taels was nothing to Emperor Wanli, but it was nothing to the current emperor!  Of course it doesn¡¯t matter if they don¡¯t get any benefits from maritime trade. No matter how great the benefits are, they can¡¯t put a penny in their pockets. But watching others make money while you can only watch, it¡¯s inevitable to feel uncomfortable.  Why, if everyone has the same grade, you can eat delicacies from the mountains and seas, but I have to rely on that little oil and water.  So the quarrel in the court was quite lively, and everyone acted like they were serving the country and the people. From governing the country to people's livelihood, they talked about facts and reasons, and the quarrel was endless.  Interest is the only driving force, and several ministers with considerable interests in the southeastern coastal areas are arguing very hard.  And the partisanship is even more obvious in it. The Jiangxi faction refuses to obey the Jiangnan faction, and the Qi Party refuses to give way to the Chu Party. Why fight?  Isn't it a matter of fighting for profit?  Now Zhu Youxiao feels a bit like a referee, watching the ministers attack each other.  But there is no time to play games with them now. The Westerners are about to attack, and they have many things to do.  So he put his hands down, calmed down the quarrel and began to speak.  (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!
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