eurekapd Chapter 525: Unethical 3 Taxes
Chapter 525: Unethical 3 Taxes
"What are these names?" Emperor Lin just heard the names and had no idea what they were for.
Zhou Chang began to introduce them one by one: "The first is the draft tax. As the name suggests, this item is set up specifically for ships. Those ships that enter and exit the river and the sea, as long as they are docked at the dock, they will waste the dock built by the court at a cost. The heavier their ships are, the more draft they have, which means the more valuable the goods are, and they should pay more tax."
Emperor Lin nodded, thinking that it made sense.
This way, it will not look ugly and will actually fill the loopholes in the tax collection items.
Zhou Chang knew that what he said was a twisted logic, but he had to add righteously: "The draft tax should be collected according to the size and weight of the ship, and also according to the value of the goods. If the goods are of low value and heavy, then 10% tax should be collected. If the goods are of high value and heavy, then 40% should be collected. Who let them make more money? Shouldn't this money be earned by the court?"
"Forty percent?" Emperor Lin was more anxious to collect the money than anyone else, but since forty percent was almost half, he still felt it was too much.
Zhou Chang said, "Forty percent is not too much. If you think it's too much, you can go by land and use carriages. Our court doesn't want to block people's business. It's not like they have no choice. This is how we can show our court's kindness."
The kidnappers who kidnapped Yuan Yu were not simple people. The first time they asked for two million taels of silver, which was loaded into twenty boxes. If they wanted to transport so much silver, they would need at least ten horse-drawn carriages. If they added more people and horses, it would be a huge move and a conspicuous target.
According to Wen Qingyan, before and after the first two ransoms were paid, the local government sent people to search for them, but found nothing.
Considering the huge size of the twenty boxes of silver, the best way to transport it is still by water. If they said they didn't find it, it can only be said that they didn't check carefully enough and missed it.
For this purpose, she specially asked Shouhou to go to Zhong Yu to borrow the map of the neighboring country yesterday.
There is indeed a waterway near Qihuang Mountain.
The first two ransom payments must have been shipped away long ago and there is no way to find them, but the third ransom has not yet been delivered, so the water route should be cut off and the money should be intercepted so that the ransom can be found.
"That... is true." As long as the Emperor could collect the money, he generally didn't want to think too much about it and thought it was reasonable.
Seeing that the first point was successfully explained, Zhou Chang secretly reminded himself not to relax and to make every effort: "The second one is the customs duty. As the name suggests, anyone who passes through the customs will be charged a 50% tax regardless of what they do."
"Tariffs have always existed, and in the past they were only 3% of the goods. Fifty percent, fifty percent, what's the explanation?" Emperor Lin felt that it was unreasonable to charge half as much.
"Father, the imperial court used to collect customs duties both at the time of entry and exit. But now the customs duties are different. Only those who want to leave the country have to pay money. As for the 50%, naturally only the rich can leave the country." Zhou Chang explained slowly.
Although she kept saying that she wanted to leave people a chance to live, in reality she wanted to block the kidnappers by land and sea, or at least kill them all within the borders of the neighboring country.
Emperor Lin still didn't understand: "What does this mean?"
"Your Majesty, please think about this. In this case, those wealthy businessmen will certainly not leave the country easily. However, those who want to do business with my Lin country will inevitably enter the country. The silver will not be collected when entering the country, but only when leaving the country. Wouldn't that mean that all the silver will be left in my Lin country? It's not impossible for them to leave, but they have to leave the silver behind." Zhou Chang's words could not stand up to careful thinking and scrutiny, but there was nothing he could do.
Zhou Chang thought about it over and over again last night and analyzed the identity of the kidnapper. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the kidnapper might not be from Lin Country at all.
If they are from a neighboring country, the kidnappers can just ask for bearer silver bills issued by the same bank as the bank, which will be more convenient to circulate.
Lin State is located in the Central Plains, with convenient transportation and banks all over the world. Even if they want to guard against the Yuan family's business, they can specify other families, or even multiple businesses, making it impossible for the government to track them down.
But the kidnappers only wanted loose silver without the official stamp, most likely to recast it later or to prevent the official from tracking it down when transporting it across the border.
It is impossible for official silver to leave the country without a document, but no one will check loose silver.
This was the only way Zhou Chang could cut off the third ransom payment that had not yet been paid and leave Lin State.
However, it was impossible to count on Emperor Lin to issue an order for help in the case of kidnapping, and as Prince Yi, he was not in a position to investigate the matter openly, so this was the only solution he could think of.
The Emperor was still thinking: "This proposal is feasible, but if the tax is too heavy, it may cause resentment among the people..."
"What public grievances are there? Ordinary people cannot collect any of this tax. As for those who want to go out of the country to do business... as long as your father agrees and increases the number of troops in the Jin Caosi, I am willing to personally lead people to Yuebei to supervise the implementation of this customs duty." Zhou Chang now wished he could fly to Beiji City immediately.
It is close to the three northern states of Vietnam and is the largest and most prosperous capital in northern Vietnam.
The kidnappers chose the north to kidnap Yuan Yu and hid him in Qihuang Mountain outside the city. It can be said that they had planned this for a long time.
Emperor Lin was about to nod, but then asked, "Do you want to increase the number of people in the Jin Cao Division? What kind of people do you want? What will they do there?"
Zhou Chang's preparations to this point can be regarded as a direct request for power from the Emperor: "Father, I will rush to Yuebei to collect taxes. After all, the area was just recovered not long ago and there are many people there. It is hard to guarantee that there will not be some villains who do not take our Great Lin seriously. I alone will not be enough. I will need more people to strengthen my momentum. For this, please grant me a gold medal so that the journey will be smooth and I can do my job more effectively."
"Why do you need a gold medal?" The emperor hadn't agreed to increase the number of staff, but he had another item. "What do you think of this gold medal?"
"I only need thirty to fifty people. If you are worried, you can directly draw them from the imperial guards." What Zhou Chang actually wanted was the imperial guards. What's the use of those people who can only collect taxes?
But she had to do both: "As for the gold medal, in ancient times there was the red-lettered iron certificate, and in the previous dynasty there was the imperial sword. The gold medal is just a name. As long as it is granted by your majesty, it can be used as the golden order of the Ministry of Justice. Anyone who disobeys the order and refuses to pay taxes can be executed first and then reported to the emperor. All property can be confiscated on the spot."
"Well..., that's not impossible." When it comes to collecting money, the Emperor is very generous in delegating power. "But although the Imperial Guards number tens of thousands, they cannot leave the Imperial City without reason. This is the ancestral rule. I'm afraid we can't withdraw them. You have to figure out how to get more manpower yourself."
Zhou Chang saw that the matter was halfway accomplished, so he could not be too bothered by the details and took a step back: "In this case, please allow me to recruit temporarily."
When they needed manpower to refine snake oil before, they were told that they couldn't make the shifts when they mobilized dozens of people from tens of thousands of imperial guards. And since they were not allowed to leave the imperial city at will, that was fine.
Emperor Lin nodded: "This is not a big deal, please tell me the third item."
Zhou Chang continued, "As for the third item, the transfer tax, it is indeed set up specifically for wealthy merchants. Your Majesty, think about it carefully. In the past, those wealthy merchants used all kinds of methods to evade taxes when doing business. In order to control it, the Ministry of Revenue can only collect taxes when there are transactions between merchants and money houses. But who knows how they interact privately?"
"Hmm..." Emperor Lin not only expressed his agreement, but also spoke from the heart.