C756 Twenty years of tax reform (1/2)
Just as the Letian Bank was about to put in a lot of effort to bribe the officials of the capital, the two princes, the Minister of Revenue, the Grand Scholar Weng Tonghe and the personal eunuch of Empress Dowager Ci Xi were also gathered together.
However, the sumptuous dishes on the table were not touched at all. The leaders of the strongest opposition in the imperial court were all preoccupied with their own matters today.
The Prince Kung and the Prince of Alcohol were the siblings of Emperor Xian Feng, the son of Emperor Daoguang. Weng Tonghe was also the Imperial Advisor, and the father and son duo were both leaders of Qing Liu, who was in charge of the world's money and grains. Naturally, they were also the direct descendants of the imperial court.
As for Li Lianying, she was completely the empress dowager's representative, the birth mother of the emperor! However, these few people had become the opposition today. Logically speaking, shouldn't they be part of the imperial government?
The reason was very simple. It was because last year, when Ci Xi had stupidly activated that palace change, that caused the originally one body of the empress dowagers to break apart. In order to survive, the Empress Dowager of the East had resolutely formed an alliance with Xiao Letian.
With Xiao Letian as an ally and the Xiangjun Group as a backer, as well as Xiao Letian breaking through the TIANJIN Wei, defeating the Huai Army, and attacking the Beijing, the forces on Ci Xi's side suffered a serious blow, and almost turned into their enemy's friends.
Now, a new test was laid out before them. There was a missing corner of the table where no dishes were placed. Instead, there was a thick stack of documents with the words ”provisional tax code for the Great Qing” written on it.
In this document, Tongzhi was preparing to split the tax revenue of the entire country into two. All the money that could be transferred to the capital from the various provinces would be transferred to the Ministry of Revenue as usual, and as for the arrears of money, the Ministry of Revenue would no longer accept it.
These debts were packaged and sold to the Letian Bank together for a split sale, giving a certain amount of interest in the private sector to absorb the funds.
This was basically the same as a credit currency. Although it was primitive, it was very suitable for the current situation in the Great Qing Empire. Since the imperial government could not collect enough taxes, it was better to just sell off its debts.
Perhaps some people are worried about how these people in debt can buy it? Who would want these white stripes? What if the imperial government couldn't afford it? Isn't that the Great Ming Dynasty's treasured currency? It's becoming more and more devalued.
But Letian Bank had already answered this question long ago, and that was the double guarantee of credit. The first one was that the imperial government would use taxes to guarantee credit, which meant that the imperial government would recognize these bonds.
Don't underestimate this bank. He is already the biggest financial institution in Asia, and the wealth that he had accumulated over the years from casting silver taels was more than a hundred million taels of silver.
Using bonds to trade with Letian Firm and the banks would allow for a certain amount of preferential treatment. This was also a good way to attract civilian funds.
During Tongzhi's years, the imperial government had only just defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom s. If nothing unexpected happened, the turmoil in the Ganshan pars dorsalis s and the battle in Xinjiang would be the victor. At that time, it would truly be the rise of Tongzhi.