Joseph turned up the gas lamp on the desk slightly, and the white light instantly brightened the room.
He then took out paper and pen and began to plan the tax reforms: first, local tax bureaus had to be established in each province.
Although tax revenue would still be controlled by tax farmers in the short term, it was necessary to build up government departments, recruit personnel, and familiarize themselves with the taxation process as soon as possible.
When he thought about training tax collectors, Joseph hesitated for a moment, but quickly wrote down, "Establish a School of Economics at the Paris Police Academy to specifically handle the training of tax officers."
Tax collection in this era was absolutely a technical job. Which taxes to collect, how to collect them, how to detect tax evasion and even how to find the taxpayers all required rich experience to manage.
