Chapter 22 Section 4 Thoughts on increasing revenue and reducing expenditure

There is often a contradiction between the financial needs of the feudal state and the affordability of the people.Light corvee and low tax, no harvesting of farming time, and equal burden are some important propositions put forward by thinkers in feudal society to solve this contradiction.The focus of these propositions is to limit the state's search of the people.But by restricting the search for profit from the people, the revenue of the state is reduced.How to reduce the taxation of the people and ensure the prosperity of the country's finances? The thought of increasing income and reducing expenditure in the history of Chinese taxation thought has answered this question.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, You Ruo, a student of Confucius, advised the rulers that the collection of taxes should first consider making the people rich.If the people are rich and the wealth is abundant, the monarch will not be poor; if the people are poor and the wealth is exhausted, the monarch will not be rich. "The people are sufficient, which one is the ruler and is insufficient? The people are insufficient, which one is the ruler?" ("The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan") Therefore, the ruler should implement the policy of enriching the people and cultivate the foundation of taxation for the country.Meng Ke further pointed out that to make the people rich, there are two main ways: one is to reduce the exploitation of the people, that is, to lighten the corvee and reduce the tax; the other is to do a good job in agricultural production. "Easily change its fields and reduce its tax collection, so that the people can make the people rich" ("Mencius·Devotion to the Heart").Shang Yang further emphasized that agriculture is the foundation of a rich country.With the development of agricultural production and the increase of millet and silk produced by the people, the country's finances will be rich. If the agricultural production is not done well, the fields will be barren, and the country's finances will be poor.Xun Kuang, a famous thinker at the end of the Warring States Period, clearly put forward the idea of ​​increasing income and reducing expenditure. He said: "The humble people in the fields and counties are the foundation of wealth; Harmony, the success of the business, is the source of the goods; those who pay the government treasury, the flow of goods. Therefore, the Lord of the Ming Dynasty must be careful to support his harmony, save its flow, open up its source, and consider it from time to time, Huang [huanghuang] However, the world must have a surplus, and the top will not worry about shortage. If so, then both the top and bottom will be rich..." ("Xunzi·Fuguo").What Xun Kuang said about "fields and counties" refers to agricultural production. "When the common people are in harmony, their careers can be articulated", which means that the weather, location, and people are harmonious, and the agriculture, industry, and commerce are in order. "Yuan granary" is a warehouse for storing grain. "Equal Fu Treasury" refers to the treasury that the country collects according to equal taxes and enriches them.Xun Kuang clearly pointed out here that the development of various industries in agriculture, industry and commerce is the source of wealth, while taxes and the income they collect are just the last stream of wealth. .

Xun Kuang pointed out that wealth is created by the labor of the people.To develop production, we must love and use people's power well.The state should try to impose as few forced labor as possible, so as not to encroach on farming time.What the people have spare energy to do, the country will start; what not spare energy to do, it will stop.In summer, the people should be protected from heat and heat, in winter, the people should not be protected from freezing cold, and the labor force of the people should not be harmed.It is necessary to build water conservancy, use improved seeds, improve tools, and repair roads to ensure the development of agriculture, industry, and commerce, so as to open up sources of income.It is necessary to reduce the taxation of the people, make the people have surplus money, increase investment in production, and thus increase the output of the land.Xun Kuang, like many other thinkers, objected to the state's efforts to suck the marrow out of the people and exhaust their resources.It is believed that the country's treasury is temporarily sufficient, but the people are poor.The people died of hunger and cold, unable to develop production, which fundamentally destroyed the source of wealth.It is impossible for the treasury to be enriched in this way for a long time.This is like a container "overflowing and leaking downwards" ("Xunzi·Wang Zhi"), although the top is filled to flow, but the bottom is leaking, so the water in the entire container will soon be empty, and its overflowing Abundance is only a temporary appearance.

This idea of ​​developing production to open up financial resources, thereby increasing the country's tax revenue, has been inherited by progressive thinkers and financiers of all ages.The starting point of the land equalization system in the Northern Wei Dynasty was to solve the land problem first, so that all laborers could own land, the most basic means of agricultural production, and engage in the production of millet and silk, thus ensuring the source of taxation for the country.Pi Rixiu of the Tang Dynasty also clearly put forward the principle of taxation to "encourage the people to succeed in business".Industry refers to production, that is, national taxation should play a role in motivating the people to develop production. "Tax collectors do not serve the king by leading the people, but also make their careers by encouraging the people" ("Pi Zi Wen Sou · Please Xing Zhou Dian").Wang Anshi also pointed out that financial management must first start with the development of production. "Because of the power of the world, the wealth of the world is born; the wealth of the world is taken to provide for the expenses of the world" ("Shang Renzong Emperor's Statement").It is believed that wealth should be obtained first and then obtained. This is the basic principle of financial management and endowment management.A series of new laws such as the Farmland Water Conservancy Law that he implemented all run through this spirit of increasing the country's tax revenue through the development of production.Wei Yuan, a famous thinker in the early modern period, also expounded the relationship between taxation and production very vividly. He said: "Those who are good at rewarding the people, such as planting willows! Pay their branches and leaves, but cultivate their roots; those who are not good at rewarding the people, such as Then cut leeks! Cut a border every day, and there will be more than enough” ("Wei Yuan Ji·Zhi Pian XIV").It is believed that a ruler who is good at collecting taxes from the people is like planting a willow tree, protecting and cultivating the roots, promoting its growth, and making its branches and leaves flourish, so that there will be no shortage of firewood.On the contrary, if you keep pruning one crop after another like cutting leeks, only know how to collect people's wealth, but don't know how to cultivate financial resources, then the source of national taxation will be exhausted.It very vividly illustrates the importance of enriching the people first, developing production, protecting financial resources, and national taxation.

While advocating open source, thinkers of all dynasties have emphasized flow, that is, limiting the extravagance and waste of the state ruling group and saving financial expenditure.Extravagance and corruption are almost the common features of the feudal courts of all dynasties.In Chinese history, except for a few founding emperors and ZTE kings, every feudal court was extremely corrupt.Take the Ming Dynasty as an example.The emperor raised a leopard, covering an area of ​​10 hectares, employing 240 people, paying more than 2,800 shi for grain and 700 taels of land rent every year.When Ming Shenzong got married, 90,000 taels of silver was spent on weaving and border defense, and 24 million taels of silver was used to buy jewelry.It took more than 9.3 million taels of silver to build the three halls and more than 8 million taels of silver to build the Dingling Mausoleum, which took six years.If the extravagance and waste of the rulers were not restricted, the increased wealth that the common people gained through hard production would be far from satisfying their extravagance when the productivity level of the feudal society was still low.

Mo Di was the first in history to fully discuss the significance of thrift to put an end to excessive expropriation and expropriation and to enrich the country and the people.Mo Di pointed out that the monarch eats delicacies from mountains and seas, wears splendid literary talents, palaces, boats and chariots are carved and decorated in every possible way, the monarch is so extravagant, the monarch's cronies, noble ministers also follow suit, and compete for extravagance. There are a large number of rulers in the country. , the entire ruling group is extravagant and corrupt, and the normal tax revenue obviously cannot meet their needs.Because the state "makes the people work hard" and "accumulates a thick family", it leads to "insufficient wealth of the people" and causes the people to "die from cold and starvation, countless" ("Mozi·Jieyongshang"), so the country is poor and the people are poor. Refractory.Mo Di believed that if the ruler can be economical, eat ordinary food, wear ordinary clothes, travel in ordinary cars and boats, and live in ordinary houses, the country's normal tax revenue can meet the needs, the phenomenon of excessive and violent expropriation can be eliminated, and the people will live in peace. can be rich.

The author of "The Book of Rites", which was written in the Qin and Han Dynasties, put forward the principle of "living within one's means" to save expenditures, and believed that the state should arrange fiscal expenditures according to the amount of tax revenue. Fiscal expenditure should not exceed the amount of tax revenue. Moreover, a certain amount of savings should be kept in case of severe famine.Xun Kuang pointed out before that if the ruler can be economical in consumption, he can collect less from the people, and then the wealth left in the hands of the people will be more, and the more money in the hands of the people, they can Purchase new production tools, apply more fertilizers, improve the soil, do better farm work, and make the fields more fertile. The output can be doubled, and the country can become rich.Therefore, the ruler's frugality can not only make the country rich by reducing wealth consumption, but also promote production in turn, and make the country rich by increasing income.

In response to the extravagance and corruption of the rulers, Zhang Juzheng of the Ming Dynasty also sharply pointed out: "The way to govern the country is to save money first" ("Zhang Taiyue Collection · Please Stop Internal Work").He said that the wealth produced by the people and the growth of the world is an established and limited amount. The country tries to suppress, not only cannot increase the total amount of wealth, but can only change the distribution ratio between the monarch and the people.Clever plunder can increase the revenue of the treasury, but it makes the people unable to make a living and causes unrest in the world.Therefore, it is far worse for the monarch to practice strict economy and reduce expenditure, so that the wealth will naturally be sufficient, and the people will also be rich. "Instead of trying to solicit and ask for a limited number of sick people, who would like to be frugal and take it from self-sufficiency?" ("Zhang Taiyue Collection·Chen Liushi Shu") he said, a three-inch A long pipe, though short, cannot be filled with any amount of water if it has no bottom.The extravagance and waste of the current rulers not only has no bottom, but is far more than just a three-inch pipe.This is the reason for the poor state finances.Therefore, he asked the rulers to live within their means, and all useless expenses should be stopped when they can be stopped, and those who can be stopped should be stopped, "make sure that the amount of annual income is always more than what is spent" ("Zhang Taiyue Collection See Detailed Household Department Jincheng Jietieshu" ), to achieve the goal of national financial prosperity through throttling.

Although the idea of ​​increasing revenue and reducing expenditure in the history of Chinese taxation thought did not change the characteristics of feudal taxation, which was characterized by slapping the bone and absorbing marrow, extortionate taxation, and depletion of resources, it still played a certain positive role in history, and it sounded the alarm for the extravagance and greed of the rulers from time to time.For example, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was a relatively frugal feudal ruler. He had a clear understanding of the meaning of frugality. He once said to the prince: None of the previous emperors was extravagant and long-lasting.He warned the prince to be frugal.He himself also practiced in this regard, "be frugal, flatten the corvees" ("Sui Shu·Gao Zu Ji"), and he has been in power for more than 20 years, creating a politically stable, economically prosperous, prosperous people and a strong country in the early Sui Dynasty.