Chapter 189: The Poll Tax Silver

The Qiongshan County Grain Collection Bureau was established in the northwest corner of the Qiongzhou prefectural yamen within the county seat. This location had originally been the Qiongzhou Tax Office. Although Cheng Dong lacked the capacity to establish a complete tax bureau team for every county, he had long ago formulated the structure, systems, and regulations for such bureaus. Qiongshan County simply had to follow the established blueprint.

The original main hall of the yamen was converted into a collection hall. Newly made wooden counters were already installed. A portion of the roof tiles had been removed to install skylights, and long windows were cut into the walls to let in sufficient light. This was done partly to provide ample illumination and save on candles and lamp oil, and partly based on the lofty theory of psychologist Jiang Qiuyan, who argued that brightness could enhance a person’s sense of shame—dim environments made it easier for people to commit misdeeds with a clear conscience.

Along the walls, many file cabinets and drawers were installed. Several clerks were busy pasting labels. Tax collection was based on the administrative district known as a “du,” with plans to switch to a town-based system in the future.

Liu Xiang walked through the tax bureau, looking at a pair of large lanterns being hung in front of the main gate. They were old items from the yamen, now cleaned and re-covered with fresh paper. One read “Qiongshan County Grain Collection Bureau,” and the other bore a single, enormous character for “Tax,” creating a very imposing feel.

Crates of blank tax receipts, ledgers, and official paper, transported from the Lingao printing factory, were stacked in a locked side hall. Chen Ce, an Elder and special tax commissioner sent from Lingao, was giving a lesson to a group of newly recruited local tax collectors. This Elder Chen’s primary purpose in Qiongshan was to establish the Delong Bank’s Qiongshan branch; his secondary purpose was to assist in setting up the Qiongshan Tax Bureau and to oversee the collection of the summer tax.

After his lesson, Chen Ce returned to his office, where Liu Xiang discussed his idea of collecting the corvée labor silver from the large households.

“This poll tax silver is a considerable sum. In the past, many gentry and large households either didn’t pay or paid very little. It makes no sense to ask the common people to bear this burden again after the typhoon. So this time, I plan to apportion this entire poll tax silver onto them.”

Chen Ce nodded. “I agree with that, but under what pretext?”

Liu Xiang was puzzled. “What pretext? We are the government. What pretext does the government need to collect taxes?”

“Even when they raise electricity and water fees, they know to fly the banner of environmental protection. You’re so blatantly taking money from the people without even a pretext…” Chen Ce laughed. “You still need a pretext. Otherwise, when people ask you why a tax that everyone used to pay is now only being paid by the large households, isn’t that just bullying?”

Liu Xiang said, “But in the past, the gentry and large households paid very little or not at all. What was the pretext for that? Weren’t they bullying people?”

“It’s different,” Chen Ce shook his head. “Your concept of ‘governing according to law’ is not yet strong…” He explained that in the past, although the gentry and large households paid little or nothing, there was always some basis for it. For example, those with scholarly honors were customarily exempt from a certain amount of corvée labor. Some large households, though lacking scholarly honors, had a lot of land but few people, so under the Ming dynasty’s system, their corvée labor burden was naturally less. Of course, in actual implementation, there were many other tricks.

“If you want to go after the wealthy and exempt the poor now, you need to come up with a new regulation. That way, people will feel there’s a law to follow, rather than your words becoming the law.”

“Is it that complicated?” Liu Xiang wondered if this guy was from the Law Club, with all his talk of “governing according to law.”

Chen Ce smiled and began to present his progressive tax system.

The concept of a progressive system was not unfamiliar to the Elders, as almost all of them had paid income tax, which was progressive. The general idea was that the more you earned, the more you paid.

“By using a progressive, tiered tax rate, you can legitimately shift the burden onto the large households and gentry. If the preferential treatment for scholars and gentry was the Ming dynasty’s system, then the progressive system is our Senate’s system. They won’t fail to understand this reasoning.”

According to Chen Ce’s thinking, the current accounts for collecting poll tax silver in each county were a complete mess, with no basis to be found. However, the land situation in each county was now quite clear after the land survey. Therefore, the poll tax silver and miscellaneous taxes could all be calculated based on the amount of land.

“The clearest local data we have right now is the land area and household registration figures for each county. Collecting the summer tax based on this is the most stable approach; no one can say much. Secondly, it prepares for a smooth transition to the new tax system next year,” Chen Ce said. “No one can complain—after all, we are looking out for the interests of the majority. The common people aren’t fools; they know who is good to them.”

“Makes sense, makes sense,” Liu Xiang nodded repeatedly. “But the fertility of the land varies. Having more land doesn’t necessarily mean more income…”

“Isn’t the fertility of the land specifically recorded in the registration books?” Chen Ce said with confidence. “To simplify things, we can calculate it based on the actual annual yield of the crops.”

In the end, according to Chen Ce’s design, Qiongshan County’s summer tax would be collected based on the amount of land. First, using the new land registers, the average yield per mu for Qiongshan County would be calculated. Any land with a yield within 10% of this average would be considered a “standard mu.” The amount of land used for tax calculation would be based on these “standard mu.” Land with yields above or below this range would be converted to standard mu using a specific formula.

“Is what we’re doing a form of ‘merging the poll tax into the land tax’?” Liu Xiang suddenly asked after seeing the specific plan.

“That’s right, we’re implementing our own version of ‘merging the poll tax into the land tax.’ Of course, our method is a bit different from the one in the old world,” Chen Ce laughed. “You see, everything we’re doing today can be added to middle school history textbooks in the future. We don’t need to give this honor to the Fourth Master.”

The specific collection unit was the “household.” Any landless household or household with an average land ownership of no more than 20 standard mu would be exempt from the poll tax silver. For those exceeding 20 standard mu, there would be 13 tiers, with the proportion of tax increasing with the amount of standard mu owned.

Chen Ce also formulated a series of preferential exemption policies. Those serving in the military, holding public office, or who were injured or killed in the line of duty would receive standard exemptions. Additionally, those who joined the Heaven and Earth Society’s services or sent their children to school in Lingao would also receive certain exemptions.

“If you wanted, you could even give a small reduction to the Ming gentry and scholars…”

“If the Fourth Master wouldn’t do it back then, we certainly won’t do it now,” Liu Xiang shook his head repeatedly. “The whole point is to get silver from them. What’s the fun in giving them reductions?”

“You, go and calculate immediately, based on this tax rate table, what the average burden per household is, and what the total collection amount is,” Chen Ce instructed a clerk he had brought with him. “Tell them it doesn’t need to be extremely detailed, just get the approximate figures first.”

The clerk left immediately. A few minutes later, the sound of abacuses clattering like rain came from the second hall. A dozen or so abacus experts were gathered there—they were members of the Directorate of Finance’s abacus team, brought by Chen Ce from Lingao, all former clerks from the household departments of various prefectures and counties. Although each of them was full of cunning and skilled in crooked ways, their abacus skills were formidable. Cheng Dong had gathered this group into an abacus team, specifically responsible for calculations based on assigned tasks within the Directorate of Finance. At first, they were a bit unruly—some secretly sold data, others acted arrogantly outside—but after one was hanged and several were sentenced to indefinite hard labor in the mines of Nanbao and Sanya, the abacus team not only became more proficient in their work but also politically “reliable.”

As for the other miscellaneous taxes, Chen Ce believed they could wait. The fishery tax was already being collected daily, so it was not advisable for the county to collect it again. Salt was already a state monopoly, so there was no need to tax it again at the consumption stage. However, the commercial tax had some potential.

“…Our current goal is to stimulate industrial and commercial development. We can appropriately reduce or exempt the commercial tax,” Liu Xiang said. “The original industrial and commercial tax revenue was already very small; we might as well not collect it at all.”

“Since it’s not much, it’s better to continue collecting it,” Chen Ce said. “Don’t let the commercial households think that not paying taxes is a matter of course. That way, when we re-impose taxes later, there will be a huge backlash.”

“Alright. Fortunately, the burden on commercial households is not large.”

“It’s not just ‘not large,’ that tax rate is practically no burden at all,” Chen Ce said. “I’d say the commercial households are almost tax-exempt… The Ming tax authorities are like a coffee table—their extraction efficiency is backward compared to other civilized nations in the world.”

In the same period, Japan’s rice yield could reach 22 million koku. The Ming dynasty, under the personal supervision of the so-called “most avaricious” Emperor Wanli, only managed to generate an annual income of 20 million taels of silver. Even at the rice prices of the time, this income was equivalent to only 50 million koku. And yet, this already caused widespread resentment and starvation. This showed the poor execution capability of its administrative institutions.

Liu Xiang shook his head. “Your view is too absolute. The official burden on commercial households from the Ming government was not large, but the actual burden was not small. They were constantly being forced to procure goods for officials and deal with apportionments. It’s just that most of this wealth ended up in the officials’ personal pockets.”

“But now the Ming officials can’t extort them anymore, can they?” Chen Ce said. “So we should improve the system. As long as the total burden is reduced and the taxes are paid transparently, the commercial households will welcome it.”

Chen Ce knew that there were many types of industrial and commercial taxes, and many were indirect turnover taxes, which were less stressful to collect and were a major source of increased tax revenue. The recent financial meetings at Wudaokou had discussed this issue many times, and taxes like the deed tax, slaughter tax, and a business tax were all under consideration for collection.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Liu Xiang interrupted him. “Right now, I need to nurture Qiongshan’s industry and commerce first. Qiongshan is not as commercially prosperous as Lingao. We need to raise the fish before we can catch them.”