Chapter 552: I Know a Thing or Two About Economics
Chapter 553: I Know a Thing or Two About Economics
Upon hearing this, Chabanne frowned slightly and asked, "Have the goods we're selling to Le Havre been loaded yet?"
"Almost there," the accountant replied. "Pierre got hurt yesterday, or it would have been done by now."
"Are the accounts all settled?"
"Don't you worry, Manager, everything's in order."
"Good." Chabanne nodded, then instructed, "Later, you take the tax officials to check the accounts. Try to delay them as much as possible. Michel and I will help load the goods, then slip out through the back door."
"The back door will probably have tax officials blocking it too."
"No matter, I'll send an empty carriage to draw them away first."
As Chabanne spoke, he waved to the assistant on the carriage: "Quick, follow me to load the goods!"
Immediately afterward, Chabanne directed another carriage, fully loaded with mirrors, to appear furtively. After confirming no one was around, it quickly turned into a nearby alley.
An hour later, several tax officials left the "Ruby" mirror workshop empty-handed.
Currently, France operated under a "goods tax" system, meaning that every time you sold a batch of goods, you had to pay a tax. Of course, for items like tobacco, alcohol, and tea, you might have to pay twice.
Therefore, tax officials had to constantly monitor factories and estates. As soon as they saw goods being shipped out, they had to immediately step in to levy the tax.
If the tax officials failed to notice goods being transported, it would be extremely difficult to collect that tax later—factories almost always kept false accounts, making it impossible to trace the goods.
Thus, producers and tax collectors engaged in a cat-and-mouse game. In the past, if a tax farmer suspected a workshop of secretly moving goods, they would even torture the workers to extract the truth.
By dusk, Chabanne's carriage had already left the city of Rouen.
He smiled, humming a little tune.
Today, successfully evading the tax officials had saved him another 8 francs in taxes.
'Ah, life is truly getting better!' he mused.
...
Second floor of the Tuileries Palace.
Fulco, Director of the General Tax Bureau, glanced at Robespierre beside him and sighed, saying:
"Your Highness, I recommend equipping tax officials with whips and granting them the authority to open fire when encountering violent tax resistance. Otherwise, next month's tax revenue might still... well, be less than ideal."
Joseph also frowned as he looked at the January tax revenue report.
In the Tax Bureau's first month of collecting taxes, the national total revenue was only 34 million francs. Not only did it fail to meet the projected target of 41 million francs, but it was even less than what the tax farmers used to pay in contracted taxes.
"So, widespread tax evasion is what caused us to miss the revenue target?"
"That seems to be the case, Your Highness," Fulco nodded.
Over the past month, countless situations similar to Chabanne's had occurred across France, and the inexperienced tax officials, who couldn't resort to force, were being led in circles.
Joseph looked at him and said, "You believe that for tax officials to use more forceful methods is the only way to solve this problem?"
"I believe it should be effective..."
Fulco was cut off by Robespierre before he could finish:
"Your Highness, you are creating an entirely new tax system, and because of it, you have earned the respect and praise of the general populace. If we revert to using whips to collect taxes, what difference would there be from the tax farmers?"
Fulco glared at him discontentedly. "The difference is that the national treasury won't collapse due to the shamelessness and cunning of the common people! Minister, your kind heart won't collect any taxes."
"A tax official's gun should not be pointed at civilians, Count! That will only breed hatred and opposition."
Joseph rubbed his temples. Although he had mentally prepared himself for the quality of the populace in this era, he hadn't realized he had still overestimated them.
Without the exploitation of the tax farmers, and with his tax reforms cutting many unreasonable taxes, the people were already paying much less. Yet, they had grown even more greedy.
'Must I resort to sticks and whips to make them pay their taxes properly?'
He wasn't opposed to appropriate use of force, especially against those who illegally resisted taxation; sometimes deterrence was indeed effective. The tax farmers not only collected all the taxes but often collected much more, precisely because most tax collectors came from rogue backgrounds and would immediately resort to violence if taxes weren't paid.
Fulco's voice rose significantly: "Mr. Robespierre, then what good suggestions do you have to meet your tax objectives?"
"I will increase training for tax officials, making them more experienced..."
Joseph quickly halted their argument and looked at Robespierre: "Can you elaborate?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Robespierre said. "When I interrogated those tax farmers, I learned that they knew exactly when factories would sell goods. They didn't need to constantly monitor them like our tax officials do to avoid missing any tax payments."
"Monitoring?" Joseph seemed confused. "Monitoring where?"
"At the factories, estates, or shops that owe taxes, of course."
"Oh? How do they monitor?"
"They send people to loiter nearby, checking and collecting taxes at any time."
"..."
Joseph felt something was off. After detailed questioning, he finally understood the clumsy tax collection method of this era.
'No wonder so many people evade taxes. Unless you can fill the streets with surveillance cameras, people will always find a way to avoid you.'
'Or, like the tax farmers, use violence to intimidate the public, making them too scared not to pay.'
He looked at Fulco, about to say, 'Proceed as you suggested,' when he suddenly froze.
'I've been muddled by their argument.'
'Why must we continue to use this clumsy tax collection method?'
'There are ready-made solutions from later eras; just adapting them can solve the problem.'
'For example, value-added tax, combined with the ultimate weapon: the invoice.'
Joseph quickly organized his thoughts and said to the two heads of the Tax Bureau:
"What if we change our approach and have taxpayers supervise each other's tax payments?"
Fulco, an economics expert, immediately smiled and said, "Your Highness, if I may be frank, that's impossible."
Joseph smiled back at him: "I've heard of a taxation method.
"It only taxes the increased portion when the price of a good rises. For example, if a shop buys goods for 10 francs and sells them for 15 francs, we tax the additional 5 francs."
Fulco blinked, cautiously saying, "Your Highness, that doesn't seem to make much difference..."
"Please bear with me. This way, everyone will need to prove their purchase price to pay less tax," Joseph explained. "And how do they prove their purchase price? The seller must provide proof."
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