Chapter 196 proposes the clearing of land and the implementation of the employment system (two in one)
Zhu Houzhao decided to issue an order to win the favor, and at the same time, he also ordered Wang Qiong to go to Beijing quickly to reform the salt policy.
Naturally, Wang Qiong did not dare to disobey Zhu Houzhao's will, and she was very happy in her heart. She secretly thought that His Majesty the Emperor was still unwilling to listen to the mercy of the civil servants. Since she was doing this, she could say that she could not disobey the emperor's orders, and she no longer had to worry about being criticized.
However, when other civil servants in the imperial court learned that Zhu Houzhao had ordered to seize love, they immediately exploded and started talking about the matter.
The civil servants were naturally extremely disappointed and indignant at the behavior of Emperor Zhu Houzhao and Wang Qiong who returned home without their titles and Ding You.
But the civil servants have learned their lesson now, and know that disobedience to Emperor Zhu Houzhao will not end well, so they just scolded Wang Qiong one after another. Some said that Wang Qiong was unfilial, some said that Wang Qiong was in love with power, and some said that Wang Qiong secretly encouraged the emperor. Those who order to seize love.
Of course, the real reason for the disappointment of these civil servants was not that Wang Qiong did not return to his hometown to observe filial piety, but that he could not stop the court from reforming the salt policy.
"Master Ye! I also gave the students the money, and followed your instructions to kill Wang Qiong's father, but why did Wang Qiong still go to Beijing? Now the Ministry of Revenue has begun to order to stop collecting silver and salt. ! It looks like we really need to pay for food and salt!”
Yangzhou student Duan Guisheng went to Taichang Temple Prime Minister Ye Zhi and complained. His family was a big salt merchant in Huaiyang. He had been staying in the capital since last year, intending to collude with officials and prevent the court from reforming the salt policy. However, he did not expect that money was called this. The courtiers accepted a lot of money and even had to commit murder, but in the end they could not stop the court from changing the salt policy.
Ye Zhi himself was also very depressed. He was also a big salt merchant in Huaiyang, and relying on the national policy that his father changed when he was the Minister of Household Affairs, he has now become one of the richest people in the world. He even knew that if the salt policy of the imperial court was changed back to grain payment, Salt, how much loss it will cause to your family.
"I can't do that! His Majesty wants to steal love, and Wang Qiong is in love with power. No one can do anything to them! Even if he impeaches the official, with the methods of the current emperor, he will confiscate his family and behead his family, or even annihilate his family! Now that things have reached this point, we can only accept it." Ye Zhi could only say this, but he also received a lot of money from these salt merchants, thinking that even if the court's reform of the salt policy caused damage to his family, he would not lose anything. .
"But isn't all this money wasted!" Duan Guisheng couldn't help but stamp his feet.
"There are never white flowers. The ministers of the DPRK and China have received a lot of tribute from us salt merchants over the years. Even if they cannot stop His Majesty from reforming the salt policy now, they will find ways to improve the current salt policy in the future for this long-term tribute. Change it back, people have no possibility of immortality, and the emperor is not the same. We will wait until the new emperor takes the throne in the future, everything must be considered in the long term! ”
Ye Zhi said something meaningful.
Duan Guisheng couldn't help being shocked when he heard this, and asked with some fear: "Master Ye, what do you mean?"
Duan Guisheng did not say the word "regicide", but said in a lower voice: "This is the crime of the ten clans!"
Ye Zhi's face became serious: "I never said that I would do such a treasonous and unethical thing! Besides, the palace is very strict now, and your majesty's food and drink are strictly controlled. How could you dare to do such a thing!"
Hearing what Ye Zhi said, Duan Guisheng breathed a sigh of relief.
……
After Wang Qiong came to Beijing, he immediately proposed reforming the salt policy, and Zhu Houzhao naturally approved it immediately.
Therefore, starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, the Ming Dynasty Salt Administration once again returned to the system of "paying grain and getting salt", but it was still different from the previous "paying grain and getting salt" method.
First of all, the emperor issued an edict that strictly prohibited the powerful from asking for salt and gave the Ministry of Household Affairs the right to reject the requests of future kings and even powerful people for salt, so as to avoid undermining the salt policy.
Secondly, the price of salt collected by the government from salt households was increased to increase the income of salt households and encourage innovation in salt production technology.
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to encourage merchants to recruit people to farm in the border areas, and to adopt a contract system to collect taxes on the people's fields and avoid the labor of the border people.
Merchants all over the world felt very uncomfortable after hearing this, but for the benefit of the salt industry, they could only start transporting grain to the border and at the same time recruiting refugees to farm in the border town.
Although the imperial court reduced its annual salt tax revenue by more than one million taels, it also reduced military food expenditures by millions of taels. According to reports from the governors of border towns, starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, the number of soldiers and civilians in border towns began to increase. The Hetao is no longer deserted, and market towns and villages appear one after another.
Moreover, the imperial treasury revenue has not actually decreased. With tens of thousands of prisoners of war and criminals, Yulin City has produced nearly 10,000 taels of gold, more than 100,000 taels of silver, and countless iron ore and copper mines for the Yulin Mine since the fourth year of Zhengde. , among which gold and silver are directly escorted to Beijing and directly become state treasury revenue, while iron ore and copper ore are sold by Yulin Mining itself.
The amount of income tax paid to the central court amounted to more than 60,000 taels, and together with other taxes, the total was no less than 100,000 taels.
In other words, the development of Yulin City alone has increased the imperial court's income by more than 300,000 taels.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think that if ten or even a hundred more Yulin cities were built, the revenue of the Ming Dynasty treasury would be only three million or even thirty million taels, and there would also be sufficient funds to develop education.
But although the ideal is full, the reality is very skinny. The cost of building another Yulin City is not low. First, immigrants must be immigrated. Secondly, food must be supplied in the early stage, and it will basically take at least a few years before tax revenue can be collected.
The reason why Yulin City quickly achieved sufficient taxes and minerals to supply the court was because a large number of war criminals captured from the Little Prince tribe provided Yulin City with sufficient labor force.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had to admit that Ming Dynasty still had a long way to go to realize the primitive accumulation of capital. At least for now, it had to develop trade, not only border trade, but also maritime trade.
The first is border trade. The Tatars are now divided and naturally do not pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty. In Zhu Houzhao's view, this is undoubtedly the best time to trade with them, control the Tatar tribes through economic and trade, and even help the Tatars. The leaders of each tribe maintain their dominance within their own tribe.
Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to allow the Tatar tribes to conduct border trade with the Ming Dynasty, which meant that border trade was open, but taxation was required by the court, and entry and exit certificates from the Shipping Department of the Ming Dynasty must be obtained before entering border towns for trade, and smuggling was prohibited.
However, trade requires a certain tariff, which is levied by the newly established Daming Shipping Department. The tax is paid when receiving the voucher, that is, only after paying the tax can you obtain the qualification for customs trade.
The people of the Ming Dynasty were not unfamiliar with the Municipal Shipping Department, but they were surprised as to why the Municipal Shipping Department was established in the border town, because according to the understanding of people of this era, the Municipal Shipping Department was generally set up along the coast.
Zhu Houzhao knew that people in this era did not know about customs, so he could understand their surprise. In later generations, customs were not only established at sea.
To be precise, the newly established Municipal Shipping Department of the Ming Dynasty manages inbound and outbound trade like the customs of later generations. However, the main trade in this world is generally maritime trade, so it is literally more closely related to maritime trade.
After Zhu Houzhao's several explanations, the officials of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs basically understood what Zhu Houzhao meant by the Municipal Shipping Department, and also realized that the newly established Municipal Shipping Department was not a simple organization, and the fiscal revenue it managed might not be as large as the previous one. Less than Yanzheng Yamen.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao knew that once border trade was opened, merchant smuggling activities would most likely affect border trade income and the security of border town management.
From an economic point of view, smuggling affects the country's income and makes the border trade maintained by the empire with its strong defense force not beneficial to the country. This is why the imperial court has repeatedly banned border trade. After all, smuggling is not allowed, and border trade is not conducive to the military. defense. From a political and military perspective, smuggling is not conducive to the Ming Dynasty's economic control of the various tribes outside the border towns. The Great Wall, which was built with countless real money and silver, was not only to resist foreign enemies, but more importantly, it fixed the formal venues for trade in the border towns at several points. , which is convenient for the court to control.
If smuggling activities were rampant, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty would lose this role, which would also be a waste of the cost of building the Great Wall.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao directly ordered the governors and chief secretaries of the border towns to transfer border troops to establish the Municipal Shipping Department, with an anti-smuggling police bureau under it. The border troops were transferred to become anti-smuggling inspectors, specifically responsible for combating smuggling.
In today's Ming Dynasty, no one dares to disobey Zhu Houzhao.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao's edicts were also implemented.
Although the crackdown on smuggling would affect the interests of the powerful, the failure of King Anhua's rebellion also made the powerful realize once again how inappropriate the rebellion was at this time.
But speaking of rebellion, what Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that due to the implementation of the Kao Cheng Law, local governments had to increase tax collection, which also triggered civil unrest in some places.
Civil uprisings were first triggered in southern Jiangxi and northern Sichuan, and some imperial officials took advantage of this to suggest that the imperial court should abolish the Kao Chengfa.
"Your Majesty! The examination law is too strict. It only seeks results without asking the causes, which makes officials have no love for the people. If they are not deposed, the pressure will be worsened. Today, southern Jiangxi and northern Sichuan will rebel. It is difficult to guarantee that other places will not rebel in the future! Therefore! I ask your majesty to abolish the examination in order to relieve the pressure of the officials and the people and rule by doing nothing!”
Xie Na, a science and technology official, wrote this in his memorial.
"The Kao Cheng Law cannot be abolished! Local civil unrest was not caused by the Kao Cheng Law. The root cause is still the harm caused by subordinate officials and rural officials. They calculated the taxes they should have paid on the landless people, but instead Let the landless people become landless people in the fish scale book, thus increasing the taxes on the landless people, while the landless people have avoided paying taxes! It also caused a lot of tax losses due to contributions! ”
"Therefore, I suggest that starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, all local governments should order the land to be cleared, and it should be supervised by the governor-general and the censor. At the same time, an edict should be issued to strictly prohibit the surrender of people as slaves, and prohibit the gentry from keeping slaves!"
Now there is no need for Zhu Houzhao to stand up to oppose it. Civil servants like Jiao Fang, the chief minister of the cabinet, who have the characteristics of a bureaucratic capitalist, took the initiative to raise objections.
As a shareholder of the Royal Bank, Jiao Fang made a lot of money by taking the dividends from the Royal Bank and taking advantage of political convenience to carry out commercial activities in the Yulin City. At this time, she had the idea of clearing the land. .
He knew that in order for the Ministry of Accounts to be able to repay the Royal Bank's loans and for Royal Bank shareholders like himself to earn dividends, the Ministry of Accounts would have to continue to increase the revenue from the treasury, and to increase the revenue from the treasury, it would mainly rely on agricultural income.
Clearing the land is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to increase treasury revenue, apart from increasing commercial taxes, so Jiao Fang took this opportunity to propose it at this time.
At the same time, Jiao Fang also proposed prohibiting the donation and keeping of slaves.
Just like the request to clear land, it was not only to maintain a stable income for the Ming Dynasty, but also to prevent a large number of people from being absorbed by the powerful gentry, so as to avoid leaving the court with no soldiers to recruit or people to use.
And a capitalist like Jiao Fang, who was transformed by Zhu Houzhao, also avoids having unavailable labor force. After all, his Jiao family already has a large number of industries outside the Great Wall and needs to hire a large number of migrant workers, and it will undoubtedly be beneficial to drive ordinary people out of the gentry's estates. He was also beneficial to the court.
"I agree with what Jiao Qing said!"
Zhu Houzhao was also no stranger to clearing land and land. He knew that in history, Zhang Juzheng made a land clearing during the Wanli period. Although it did not last long, it also brought Wanli enough financial resources to support the three major levies.
It can be seen that clearing the husband's land can increase the empire's income a lot, but it will also hit the gentry group very hard. Otherwise, Zhang Juzheng would not have been so severely retaliated by the civil servants. His whole family was starved to death by a certain minister of the Ministry of Justice who was responsible for ransacking his house.
At this time, Jiao Fang suddenly proposed to clear her husband's land. Although she may not be as selfless as Zhang Juzheng, she does have a public heart. After all, this is very offending.
Fortunately, unlike Zhang Juzheng in history, Zhang Juzheng did not receive the support of the imperial power but only used the imperial power, but now Jiao Fang has the support of himself as the emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believed that the land clearing this time should be more thorough than that of Zhang Juzheng in history. Moreover, Zhu Houzhao thought it would be best to institutionalize this and clear the land every few years so that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty could know the land clearing of the Ming Dynasty at any time. Distribution reality.
Regarding civil unrest and riots, although the civil servants used this to criticize the Kao Chengfa, saying that Kao Chengfa forced benevolent officials to become cruel officials, which led to civil uprisings, Zhu Houzhao naturally would not be fooled, and said directly:
"The test of the law is a good strategy to demote the lazy officials. How can it be abandoned lightly? The agricultural tax collected in the Ming Dynasty was only thirty to one, and it was always exempted in disaster years. At this time, the popular uprising was not because of the law of test to increase the burden on the people. , but it’s because of the local levy of fire and the corruption of subordinate officials!”
When the civil servants saw that they could not easily fool the emperor Zhu Houzhao, and even made the emperor pay attention to Huo Hua, they suddenly became mute and dared not speak.
Because civil servants in Beijing, no matter how high or low, all rely on local officials' tribute and filial piety money to maintain their luxurious lives, and the money paid by local officials' filial piety does not come from the fire consumption levied by local officials. If the emperor Zhu Houzhao is really pressed, it is forbidden to impose additional fire consumption. Or if the fire is returned to the public, the interests of all civil servants will be harmed.
Therefore, civil servants did not dare to mention the abolition of the imperial examination.
Of course, the civil servants did not want the civil uprising to continue to exist. As rulers, they, like the emperor, hoped that the people would be obedient people who could be exploited at will. Therefore, the civil servants also honestly began to think about how to quell the civil uprising. .
Civil servants do have experience in this regard.
Cao Yuan, the left minister of the Ministry of War, first suggested to exempt the people in the civil uprising areas from taxes, so as to prevent the people from being unable to bear the heavy pressure of taxes and joining the thieves, so that the thieves and bandits would not have a foundation to grow. The people who rebelled were all because they couldn't survive. Providing appeasement would naturally dispel the desire to rebel. At the same time, the leader of the thieves would be sentenced to death to serve as a warning to others.
Zhu Houzhao also agreed with his strategy, and ordered Cao Yuan to lead the left deputy censor of the capital, the censor of Gannan, to quell the rebellion. Xiao Xuan, the censor of the capital of Qian, who also proposed the strategy of relieving the people's distress, combating corruption, and focusing on pacification, was also rejected by Zhu Houzhao. He was appointed as the left deputy capital censor to patrol Sichuan to suppress the rebellion. At the same time, he issued an edict to exempt the two places from taxes for three years.
At the end of the sixth year of Zhengde, both rebellions were put down.
Although the rebellion was easily put down, Zhu Houzhao knew that if the problem of officials forcing people to rebel was not fundamentally solved, it would be impossible to avoid the occurrence of peasant uprisings.
To fundamentally solve this problem, we must first crack down on the phenomenon of subordinate officials and local gentry manipulating local areas and making tax distribution unreasonable.
Therefore, the policy of land clearing is imperative and must be regularized. It happens every few years. Although it is inevitable that the land will gradually be concentrated in the hands of a few people, it can also prevent the people from having to pay for their land after they lose it. Paying taxes was even manipulated by subordinate officials and local gentry, and they rebelled after paying heavy taxes.
Therefore, at the court meeting in March of the sixth year of Zhengde, Wang Qiong, the Minister of Household Affairs, was informed by Jiao Fang, the chief minister of the cabinet, and formally proposed to implement the policy of clearing land and acres in March of the sixth year of Zhengde. He also suggested that the court clear the land every five years and establish a clearing plan. As a system, future generations must abide by this policy.
At the same time, Yang Yiqing, who succeeded the minister of rites, was inspired by the cabinet chief minister Jiao Fang and proposed a policy to abide by the constitution and ancestral laws to protect the basic human rights of the people of the Ming Dynasty. He also criticized this as a bad policy of the former Yuan Dynasty and must change it, thus making suggestions. , it is prohibited for wealthy families to keep slaves, and it is also prohibited for common people to sell themselves into slavery. Those who have been in wealthy families for many years or have sold themselves should change the contract of selling themselves into employment, clearly specifying the salary and term!
(End of chapter)