webnovelvip Chapter 404 Discussion
Chapter 404 Discussion
Chapter 404 Discussion
The class division of scholars, peasants, businessmen and commerce, in addition to aristocratic families who have always maintained this division in order to show their superior status, even the rulers of all dynasties have also maintained this division.
"What you Aiqing said is reasonable. It is indeed inappropriate for the heirs of merchants to take the imperial examination." Li Shimin said.
Ma Zhou said: "Your Majesty, the Marquis of Jingyang County proposed the matter of collecting business tax. Why don't you listen to the Marquis of Jingyang County's opinion."
The Ministry of Commerce is a new department. Although it is tied with the Sixth Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce is not comparable to the Sixth Ministry.
There are a lot of things to manage in the six ministries, but the Ministry of Commerce only collects business taxes, which is of little significance and risks being banned at any time.
As the first minister of the Ministry of Commerce, as long as the Ministry of Commerce can continue to exist, he will definitely be famous in history.He naturally wanted to make some achievements and make the Ministry of Commerce irreplaceable.
Li Shimin pondered for a while, and said: "Back to the court, Fang Xuanling, Li Jing...follow me to the Ganlu Hall to discuss matters."
……
Lin Xuan felt a little strange that Li Shimin summoned him suddenly.
Could it be that Li Shimin knew that the Cui family was about to send the money, and asked him for it?
But when he came to Ganlu Hall and saw that besides Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, Li Jing and other ten important court officials were present, Lin Xuan dismissed this idea.
"I see Your Majesty." Lin Xuan bowed and saluted.
Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "I called you here because I want to hear your opinion on something."
Li Shimin recounted Ma Zhou's proposal, and asked, "The collection of business tax was originally proposed by you, please tell me your opinion."
"Your Majesty, I think what Ma Shangshu said makes sense. Merchants pay taxes, just like ordinary people, they contribute their strength to the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, they should not be treated differently. They should enjoy the same treatment as ordinary people." Lin Xuan Said.
Changsun Wuji said: "Businessmen don't do production. If they are like ordinary people, there must be a large number of people following suit. As a result, a large number of fields will be abandoned. Who will plant the fields?"
Lin Xuan said disdainfully: "There are no idle fields in the world, and farmers still starve to death. Since ancient times, except during times of war, when has the field been deserted?"
Some people went to do business, and the vacant fields were naturally plowed. The people in ancient times were very hardworking. They were only worried about not having enough fields, so how could they let the fields go to waste.
"There are no idle fields in the world, and the farmers are still starving to death." Li Shimin praised: "Well, what a world without idle fields, and the farmers are still starving to death. It's because I didn't do well enough."
"Eh." Lin Xuan finally realized that this poem was full of irony.
Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "I've always heard that Hou Wencai of Jingyang County is extraordinary, and I'm not exaggerating. It's just that the heirs of merchants are allowed to be officials, so how can we guarantee integrity?"
How to ensure integrity is not to be afraid that after businessmen become officials, they will take advantage of their positions to embezzle and corrupt.
But in ancient times, merchants and their heirs were not always allowed to be officials, but were there fewer corrupt officials?
Although there are many upright officials recorded in the history books, how many honest and upright officials are there in such a long historical span?
Is Zhang Juzheng famous?But his life was very extravagant. In order to be able to lead troops to suppress the Japanese, Qi Jiguang had to give gifts to Zhang Juzheng to curry favor with him.
Therefore, the famous officials recorded in the history books do not mean that they are honest officials.
As for officials doing business, Lin Xuan was even more hesitant.
Not to mention anything else, just take the people sitting here as an example, which one doesn't have any business?
Even Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng are considered upright officials, how many shops do they have at home?
Speaking of this, we have to talk about the salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the salaries of officials mainly consisted of three parts, food, land and salary.
Take Wei Zheng as an example, now he is the Minister of the Shangshu Youcheng, and he can receive 260 shi of grain every year, a monthly salary of [-] cash, plus [-] cash for food and miscellaneous uses, a total of [-] cash, which is Siguan Rich.
In the Tang Dynasty, one stone was about eighty catties, and 260 stones was just over two thousand catties, which was only a dozen guan in money.
That is to say, Wei Zheng's salary plus public grain is only about [-] guan a year, and with the Duke's food, Wei Zheng's annual income will not exceed [-] guan at most.
And Wei Zheng, as the Duke of the state, even if he saves money, his expenses are not small.
Do you need a carriage for traveling?
Raising a few horses at home costs a lot of money for a year, and food and drink for the family and servants also cost a lot.
Mansions are always in need of repairs throughout the year, right?
Adding up the mess, there will not be much left throughout the year.
If there is no other income, what is the use of human relations?What do children use to get married?
That's why ancient upright officials are so rare.
"To avoid this situation, the only way is to strictly restrict officials and their immediate family members from engaging in business, and implement a system of turnover of officials," Lin Xuan said.
Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients. Officials of later generations and their immediate family members are not allowed to do business. It has already been used in the Han Dynasty.
Not only that, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the appointment of local officials has implemented the system of floating officials, that is, local officials are not allowed to be officials in their original place, and cannot serve in one place for a long time.
These methods are still in use after more than 1000 years, which shows that they are very advanced.
Although there are still some people who take advantage of the loopholes in the rules, they can let other relatives or supporters go into business.
This kind of thing cannot be avoided even in later generations, let alone in ancient times.
It is impossible for any rule to be perfect, and it can only be restrained as much as possible.
The Tang Dynasty did not implement this policy thoroughly. Although the Tang Dynasty had very strict evaluation of officials, there was a problem.
For example, there are three evaluations in the evaluation, excellent and poor, excellent means that you can be promoted, good means that you are doing well and continue to hold the same position, and poor means that you are not doing well and will be demoted or held accountable.
If someone bribes the evaluation officials and gets a good evaluation, he will always be re-elected in one place.
Many people will definitely think, since the evaluation officials have been bribed, why not give an excellent evaluation?
To be superior means to be promoted, and to be promoted is to change places. For corrupt officials, changing places means starting over and does not go along with their interests.
In addition, the evaluation of promotion officials is to be handed over to the emperor for the purpose, and will be verified again, which is not that simple.
After thinking about it for a while, Fang Xuanling understood Lin Xuan's intention, and said with a smile, "Can the Marquis of Jingyang County tell you in detail?"
He said this to let Lin Xuan explain to others.
"Any local officials are not allowed to serve in the place of origin. The farther away you are, make an appointment. After serving for three years, you must change places, and you are not allowed to be re-elected." Lin Xuan said slowly.
Li Shimin narrowed his eyes and did not speak.
Attention is good attention, but it is not realistic, and the resistance to implementation is too great.
The system existed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, with Li Shimin's wisdom, how could he not know that by doing so, the imperial court's control over the region would be greatly enhanced.
But in some places, the aristocratic family has been in business for too long, and other officials can't play there at all, and they may be wooed by the aristocratic family.
It's not convenient for him to say these things now.
After Lin Xuan finished speaking, seeing that everyone else looked puzzled and no one agreed, he knew there must be some reason he didn't know.
Lin Xuan smiled wryly in his heart. Thinking about it, the system existed in the Qin and Han Dynasties. Although Datang did not implement it thoroughly, it did not completely abandon it.
He thought it was because Li Shimin and the others didn't know the benefits of this system, but now that he thought about it, he thought it was too simple.
"This matter needs to be considered carefully. Let's discuss it later. You guys go down first." Li Shimin said.
(End of this chapter)