C756 Twenty years of tax reform

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.

Folk confidence in the court is set to rebound for the last time, so the national credit for these bonds will rise between the next decade and will not collapse badly even in the next two decades.

The real pills of the Great Qing Dynasty would have to wait until Ci Xi took charge of the stage, only then would Guang Xu be able to descend like how the Great Qing Lended to the cliff.

But for Xiao Letian, ten years of time was enough for him to use his bonds to absorb the common folk's gold and silver. At that time, Letian Bank would become the true central bank of China, and his army would become unimaginably strong.

However, he still needed to be cautious, because he had to continue to secretly suck away China's civilian wealth. Without the support of 200 million silver taels, he could forget about forming a strong navy. Without more than 1 billion silver taels, he would never be able to compete with Britain and the United States in the Pacific Ocean.

Everything required time. Xiao Letian was still young and he could still afford to wait, thus he had come up with a twenty year plan to reform the tax revenue in the Great Qing Province.

Li Lianying was unable to endure the oppressive atmosphere in the room, and said with a shrill voice, "My lords, please say a few words! "If you can solve the problem just by looking at it, then I'll dig out my eyeballs and put them on top of it, how about we watch it together?"

Department of Household Old Forest put down the pipe and coughed twice, "Ah …" "I got hit on the head by those people this morning, but I'm still not sure. I'm still thinking about it, so why don't you all tell me first …"

Everyone turned to look at Weng Tonghe. The scholar frowned and said, "I don't understand! I really don't understand. Logically speaking, this bond is a bit like the way foreigners issue paper money. However, I've never heard of foreign paper money being used as collateral? I've never heard of a promissory note being the subject matter? "

"Before this, I had asked the foreign missionaries in the East Crossing Folk Lane what kind of credit currency it is. It is a financial concept that is considered advanced in Europe, but no one dared to try it … Even the UK is now the gold standard of choice, with the law stating that gold per ounce equals 3 pounds 17 shillings 10 pennies... I heard that it was a rule set up by one of their British ancestors, Newton … "

Weng Tonghe was indeed a scholar, anything that he did not understand was at least better than other officials, he knew how to ask.

"Because the British have locked down the gold and the pound, people are willing to take the pound whether it is made of metal or printed on paper. This is the credit of gold..."

"Right now, the document is in the name of the Emperor, but we are all clear that this is Xiao Letian's plan … Normally, a Master of Western Studies who can write Journey to the West would understand this logic, right? "

"The foreign priests in the streets of the eastern suburbs are also puzzled. They pointed out two possibilities, one is that Xiao Letian predicted that the Great Qing will have twenty years of good luck with the Empire leaving, and the credibility of the Imperial Court will not collapse …"

"And the second possibility is even more bizarre, which is that Xiao Letian is a loyal subject. He would tie his entire fortune to the chariot of the imperial government and use all means possible to increase the credibility of the imperial government … That is to say, we were wrong about him before? He's really loyal! "

Everyone in the room was dumbfounded. Everyone could only stare blankly and not understand the situation in front of them!