Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 542: Ministry of Revenue Report
The most important report of this financial meeting was the report from the Ministry of Revenue.

At noon, after the officials quickly finished their lunch outside the Fengtian Hall, they continued to enter the Fengtian Hall in an orderly manner and stood in line.

After Emperor Hongzhi arrived at the Fengtian Hall again and took his seat, today's grand court meeting continued.

Qin Hong stepped out and began to report on the financial operations of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty officially began commercial reforms in the 13th year of the Hongzhi reign. Now, all businesses in the Ming Dynasty are developing rapidly, and the requirements for the Ministry of Revenue are extremely high.

After more than three years of improvement, local taxation offices have made clear divisions of tax types and tax rates for various industries. Clear calculation methods have been given for various bills, the basis for tax assessment, and the basis for collection. Local businesses voluntarily go to the taxation offices to file and pay taxes.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice also legislated on the economy, setting legal limits on tax evasion.

These things are complicated and take time to improve. There is no way to measure how much they contribute to the country, but insiders know how difficult it is to establish a corresponding and complete tax collection method in the rapidly developing business field.

Naturally, these reforms were led by Chen Ce.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty accomplished two great feats this year: setting up money shops across the country and launching new currency.

By the end of the 16th year of the Hongzhi reign, there were a total of 13,538,740 households in the Ming Dynasty and a population of 56,981,289.

Compared with five years ago, the population of Ming Dynasty has increased by nearly 10 million.

The area of ​​farmland has increased from 7 million hectares in the 11th year of the Hongzhi reign to 8.3 million hectares today.

In terms of agricultural taxation, in the 11th year of Hongzhi, the tax collection amounted to 19 million dou of rice and about 2.9 million dou of commercial silver, as well as a certain amount of other taxes such as wheat, cotton, cinnabar, etc.

This year, the state collected 22 million dou of rice from farmland, including one season's grain from the Japanese islands. Overall, agricultural taxes did not increase much, but there will be a qualitative leap next year. After all, many vassal states were sent to the Japanese islands this year, and many fields were all taken back by the state. This part of the fields has not yet generated any income.

When Qin Hong reported the huge national commercial tax revenue of 5.67 million taels of silver this year, the entire court gasped!

Such a large-scale commercial taxation was something that the top leaders of the Ming Dynasty could never have imagined!
That’s a lot, way more than one would expect!

Last year, the commercial tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only about one million taels, which was enough to shock the entire Ming Dynasty's top leaders. This year, it has increased fivefold! This shows how fast the business of the Ming Dynasty has developed in the past few years!
Many things cannot be understood if viewed individually. Everyone knows that since the Ming Dynasty focused on economic development, people's living standards have been improving, but this is only an intuitive impression. Only after these data are laid out can they fully understand how much treasury revenue the development of commerce has brought to the Ming Dynasty!
At present, Ming Dynasty has not yet conducted trade with overseas. When Ming Dynasty really starts to focus on developing overseas trade next year, it is conceivable that Ming Dynasty's economy will definitely be upgraded to a higher level again.

Now that the national treasury is full and the economy of the Ming Dynasty has begun to develop rapidly, Emperor Hongzhi began to propose that the Ministry of Works should build more projects next year, such as building bridges and roads, and focus on developing urban construction; the Ministry of Rites could set up more schools to improve people's reading and literacy rates, etc.

Only when a country's economy is comprehensively improved can many infrastructure and education projects develop accordingly. The first thing that poor and backward countries must solve is the problem of food and clothing!

The Ming Dynasty has now gotten rid of the need for food and clothing... Remember, this was only the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century, and the Ming Dynasty had already achieved such rapid development, far exceeding the Western economy by hundreds of times during the same period!
This last grand court meeting in the 16th year of the Hongzhi reign lasted until the evening when the lights were turned on.

Emperor Hongzhi also ordered the whole country and all officials to take a day off.

……

After Chen Ce finished listening to the report from the Ministry of Revenue, he quietly left Fengtian Hall. As for whether the officials in Fengtian Hall were shocked and admired Chen Ce, or were jealous and dissatisfied with him, Chen Ce had no time to know. As soon as Chen Ce left Fengtian Hall, the Zhang brothers chased him out.

When the two guys asked Chen Ce when he could give them toys to sell, Chen Ce was speechless.

What a talented pair!
Chen Ce had no choice but to hand over some wooden carriages, various small weapons, wooden trains, small trucks, etc. to the Zhang brothers after returning home.

The Zhang brothers were confused about many of these strange toys. For example, they had no idea what the four-wheeled carts were, but they could understand horse-drawn carriages.

In addition, there are also some wooden horses, frogs, snakes and various other toys, needless to say. Anyway, all the toys that Chen Ce could think of were given to the Zhang brothers.

He originally made these toys for his two little ones, and he never thought that one day he would do business with the Zhang brothers.

Even so, the Zhang brothers were still not satisfied and insisted on asking Chen Ce whether what he said would still count if the product could not be sold for 5,000 taels of silver.

According to the current exchange rate between silver and Ming Dynasty's new currency, one tael of silver is worth 200 new currencies, and five thousand taels is worth 10 million new currencies... Chen Ce felt that this possibility was unlikely.

He could only say to the Zhang brothers in disappointment that it didn't count.

The Zhang brothers were furious and wanted to seek justice from Emperor Hongzhi. However, it was useless. Chen Ce didn't want to pay attention to them at all, and Emperor Hongzhi certainly wouldn't be bored enough to give them any so-called justice.

"Brother, it seems we have been deceived by Chen Chunjian!"

"Humph!" Zhang Heling said angrily, "First find a craftsman to make these toys, and then sell them quickly!"

"If we can't sell it for that much money, we won't give the prince a share! If Chen Ce dares to cheat us, we will cheat the prince!"

Zhang Yanling's eyes lit up, and he nodded quickly, saying, "Yes, yes, yes!"

"I'll go ask the craftsman to make toys now!"

As the year draws to a close, the atmosphere of the New Year becomes more and more intense. The markets in Daming are crowded with people, and all kinds of couplets, firecrackers, fireworks, candies, etc. are being sold.

However, a very special business opened on Chengqingfang Street.

This shop is filled with all kinds of dazzling toys. Many people think that the owner is an idiot and they don't care about these things.

The Zhang brothers stayed in the shop excitedly for a whole morning, then their faces gradually turned green and they went to the East Palace to find Zhu Houzhao angrily.

……

Compared to the prosperity of Damianguan, Annan has a different scene. The entire Annan Royal Palace is quietly plotting a palace coup!
Since Zhu Jiewei entered Annan, she successfully entered the Annan Palace and became the national teacher under the operation of Li Yi. A coup was secretly brewing in the New Year of the Ming Dynasty!

(End of this chapter)