Chapter 308 Jiangnan Tax Reform
Naturally, Zhu Houzhao's restructuring could not immediately transform the Ming Dynasty's administration in Nanzhili and Zhejiang into an efficient and reasonable administrative system.
This is just the beginning and requires a lot of work.
However, Wang Shouren is responsible for these tasks.
Wang Shouren was actually quite depressed in his heart, because he actually wanted to be a saint who understood the truth of life, and wanted to continue to carry forward the spiritual knowledge he had summarized, but the imperial court used him to deal with the reform of military and political affairs.
However, he did not want to resign because he could not let go of this country.
The emperor said a word, and the old man broke his back.
This is a common phenomenon in the Zhengde Dynasty of Ming Dynasty today.
There is no way, Emperor Zhu Houzhao loves to toss and reform.
You must not talk about following the ancestral system with the emperor. If you talk about following the ancestral system, you will definitely be sent to serve as an official in the new territory of the Ming Dynasty, and you will not even be able to resign and return to your hometown.
This also led to many enterprising officials at the middle and lower levels to cater to the Holy Will and often cite various bad policies and make suggestions for court reform.
Reform and change became the mainstream thinking in the Zhengde Dynasty.
At least on the surface, it cannot be said that it is better to follow the rules.
The same is true for today's pilot reforms of political systems in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang.
The officials are becoming more and more aware of the nature of the current emperor Zhu Houzhao. They know that His Majesty the Emperor is a restless master. They know that the Emperor must change something when he comes to Jiangnan. The Emperor will not be happy if he does not change.
Although the Nanjing officials who have not yet been silenced are still loyal to the emperor Zhu Houzhao, they all have some complaints in their hearts. They wonder if the emperor can stop looking for trouble. There is no chaos in the world, no bandits have rebelled, and no feudal princes are plotting chaos. , Why don't we have a few beauties in Mochou Lake? Why do we need to reform the system, causing officials like ourselves to work overtime to study and improve the reform plan?
"Your Majesty, your officials are all very critical of the reforms proposed by Your Majesty this time. It's not that the reforms are wrong, but they feel that the Ming Dynasty is peaceful and the people are peaceful and the weather is smooth, so there is no need to waste a lot of effort!"
Fojun of Xichang reported the reactions of the officials to Zhu Houzhao. After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help laughing. He hurriedly summoned Wang Shouren and asked Wang Shouren: "Do you ministers think that I am too noisy? Tell the truth!"
"I dare not deceive Your Majesty, but Your Majesty has this idea. After the self-examination law was implemented, Ming officials worked much harder than before. Now Your Majesty is going to reorganize the system in Jiangnan and increase the number of government offices and officials. It can be regarded as a major war, which will make the officials them I am even more tired, so I have this suggestion, but I believe that as a courtier, you should have the heart to create peace for the country. If you really want to have some leisure, you can resign and become a free man. Since you want to be in charge of the people, you have to work hard without complaining! "< br>
Wang Shouren said.
"You're right! Do they really think that I like to make trouble? No, I would rather be a monk and beat the clock for a day, and live my life. But, is it possible? I didn't care about government affairs for a while some time ago, and I just did it every day. If you indulge in lust, you will still be assassinated! It is also a crime to do nothing in your position!”
Zhu Houzhao patted Wang Shouren as he spoke: "I know that you Wang Shouren also want to be a saint who understands life, but now you have been arranged by me to do some military and political reforms, but since you still want to be a cabinet minister, do To be the center of the world, one must have the consciousness to devote oneself to everything.”
"I understand," Wang Shouren replied, and then said, "I also told the officials below, but it is inevitable that there will be people who neglect the administration."
"They can resign. The Ming Dynasty does not support idlers." Zhu Houzhao said this. Wang Shouren couldn't help but smile slightly, thinking that Your Majesty is straightforward, but who is willing to resign as an official? Resigning means that there is no privileged treatment and no way to make money. However, Wang Shouren believes that although officials are unwilling to resign, their complaints will definitely grow, because everyone wants good treatment, high income, and less workload.
Yu Gui, the doctor of the Selected Works Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Nanjing, was very depressed at this time. Over the years, as a doctor of the Selected Works Department of Nanjing, he had been enjoying his time as an official with leisure and extra money, but now the imperial court had to go to Nanzhili and Zhejiang Provinces. The prefectures and counties are adding various types of officials. From the statistics of the number of officials to be recruited to the assessment and appointment, he, as the director of the Literary and Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel, must be completed, which naturally makes him very depressed.
Therefore, Yu Gui couldn't help but said to his colleagues in the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Husbandry, and other yamen in Nanjing: "Everyone, it can be said that the current imperial court does not change the law day by day, and everyone is thinking about reform. But you and I both understand that these are just to please the Holy Emperor. The official duties are heavy and there is a strict assessment system, so it is better to resign.”
"What the doctor said is true, it's better to resign!" Chen Yu also said during the incident.
As a result, other officials also responded and expressed their intention to resign.
But the next day, Zhu Houzhao received a memorial from Chen Yu who was in charge of the matter. The content of the memorial was to impeach Yu Gui and other officials for neglecting their duties. Because he was dissatisfied with the frequent restructuring of the imperial court and the increased burden, he intended to unite the ministers to resign, in order to prevent the imperial court from reforming and eliminating malpractices. thing.
Wang Shouren, who was sitting in the south of the Yangtze River and handling daily affairs for Zhu Houzhao, was very busy and had no time to study these small things in detail. He only planned to order Yu Gui and others to become officials, and promote Chen Yu to the position of doctor of the Wenxuan Department to continue to participate in the restructuring.
When Yu Gui saw that Chen Yu was promoted to a doctor in the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and that he was ordered to become an official, he was furious: "Chen Yu, you are a villain, you were the one who agreed to resign together!"
"Brother Ke Jian, please forgive me. Chen's family is poor and he will not be able to make a living if he resigns from office. The salary for supporting officials in the imperial court is now very generous, so I dare not resign lightly. As for impeaching Brother Ke Jian and others, it is just to fulfill the duty of a foolish brother!"
After Chen Yu said this, Yu Gui was so angry that he vomited blood and couldn't bear to leave the officialdom in such angrily. He quickly asked to see Wang Shouren and asked for reinstatement.
……
Zhu Houzhao was not surprised by the phenomenon of Yu Gui and Chen Yu. He could also guess that as long as the Ming Dynasty continued to reform, the workload of officials would increase, and there would be officials who were stuck in their ways, abided by traditions, or were content to enjoy themselves. Officials, Zhu Houzhao didn't mind if officials resigned, because there were many scholars in Ming Dynasty who could be officials but wanted to be officials.
In Zhu Houzhao's view, since you can resign if you are tired of being an official, there are many scholars in universities and colleges who are willing to work hard and get good income and social status. As many people resign, he can let the court recruit as many people as possible.
Of course, the vast majority of officials are still unwilling to resign, and the most they can do is complain.
Zhu Houzhao was not afraid of the complaints of these officials. He believed that the complaints of these officials would not cause a big wave, and he also expanded the number of officials. Many low-level officials and students from new schools were added to the official system, making the entire Southern Zhili The number of officials in Zhejiang and Zhejiang has increased sharply. These new officials are very active and grateful that Zhu Houzhao can give them the opportunity to serve as officials.
In addition, Zhu Houzhao also revised the examination method and added promotion rules, indicating that from then on in the Ming Dynasty, officials would have the opportunity to become high-ranking officials, ministers, or even feudal lords, and required ministers to have lower-level officials, especially state officials. The experience in county politics makes the new officials very motivated to work hard, and they all hope that they can be ranked as ministers in the future.
Of course, what these new officials don't know is that there are tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people who entered the Ming bureaucracy with him. Basically, not many people can be promoted from a ninth-rank official to a first-rank official.
In any case, it is of positive significance for Zhu Houzhao to ask Wang Shouren and other officials to do this.
At this time, there was a Department of Commerce in Southern Zhili, which was responsible for managing commerce and trade in Southern Zhili, and a Department of Agriculture, which was specialized in managing agriculture in Southern Zhili. The depth and breadth of administrative management were significantly greater than before.
In the past, the Ming government could play a relatively small role and the number of officials was small, which led to an environment for local forces and clan forces to resist the imperial court. Now, even the health issues of the people will have specialized government agencies responsible for them.
Some newly emerged cities and towns were also set up as new counties and government offices were established, so that these cities and towns no longer had no government management.
This also brought about a large increase in the number of officials and an increase in the court's financial expenditure. Zhu Houzhao was not worried about this. The increase in the number of officials and the resulting increase in public employee salary expenditures were also the result of increased investment in public utilities.
If we want Jiangnan’s public management to be better and more comprehensive, it is inevitable to increase investment in public utilities.
As for the future, it is self-evident whether these officials will take the initiative to request an increase in commercial tax collection in order to protect their income and benefits.
Of course, the number of officials has increased significantly. Taking into account the issue of administrative efficiency, the distribution of power has also changed. Officials of the fourth grade and below in the southern Zhili and Zhejiang provinces are elected by the provincial councils. The election method is to establish a provincial council. The Standing Committee is composed of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and the Provincial Standing Committee, the prefects of each province, and the officials of the provincial agencies and departments, the provincial governors, and the inspector generals. Officials of fourth rank and above are selected by the committee, and then appointed by the Organization Department.
The power to appoint middle- and lower-level officials was originally in the hands of the Ministry of Personnel, which directly appointed officials at the middle and lower levels.
The middle and lower-level officials in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang are directly under the responsibility of the Nanjing Ministry of Civil Affairs.
But now, what Zhu Houzhao and Wang Shouren did was tantamount to depriving the Nanjing officials of this power. To be precise, they deprived the Nanjing Literary Selection Department doctor of this right.
This is not surprising. The political operations of the Ming Dynasty were often in the hands of these petty officials below the fourth rank.
Officials such as Ge Shizhong, Yushi, the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel, and the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War are all small officials with great power, and of course they can easily become extremely corrupt. Now, Zhu Houzhao and Wang Shouren have given this power directly to the local government. Naturally, they are trying to avoid the appearance of these petty officials and huge corruption in the system, and at the same time, they are also preventing these petty officials in Beijing from making random appointments without knowing the actual situation of the local government.
Allowing the main local officials to be selected is considered to be a recommendation within the officials, which is the same as the imperial court recommendation model. This can select officials who are as reasonable and balanced as possible, and also prevents a single official from the literary selection department from controlling the entire world by controlling the appointment of officials. , and even led the entire civil servant group to confront the emperor.
If it changes to the current situation, even if there are officials who control the appointment and dismissal of personnel who want to control the political situation, they can only control one province.
Of course, nominally all officials in the world are appointed and removed by the emperor.
However, it is actually impossible. Due to geographical factors and limited personal energy, Zhu Houzhao must decentralize power, and how to decentralize it needs to be considered. Nowadays, it is more scientific to not decentralize power to one person.
But in this way, local autonomy is also increased in disguise.
However, Zhu Hou had read Qian Mu's "Political Gains and Losses in Ancient China". He remembered that according to Qian Mu's point of view, increasing local autonomy to a certain extent is beneficial to people's livelihood. Ancient China was a country where the central government continued to centralize power and local autonomy continued to shrink. The process resulted in ancient China becoming more and more introverted and conservative and disregarding local people's livelihood.
For example, in the Han and Tang dynasties, the power of local governors was very great, almost equal to that of princes. In the Song Dynasty, the central government dispatched commissioners to take charge of local affairs. Now in the Ming Dynasty, governors, governors and other capital officials manage local areas, and they gradually changed from temporary dispatch to long-term garrison. In the Qing Dynasty, Not to mention, there is a governor above the governor.
Zhu Houzhao doesn't know whether increasing local autonomy is a good or bad thing, but he can only try it first in the pilot projects in South Zhili and Zhejiang.
After all, the political economy of South Zhili and Zhejiang is relatively special, and the people are highly educated. Maybe they really need a certain degree of autonomy to make some more reasonable, open and even advanced policies. Maybe some modern decrees are issued by the central court. The promulgation may not necessarily apply to the whole country and may even lead to chaos, but it would be better for South Zhili and Zhejiang to implement it themselves.
For example, Wu Wending began to implement a system of taxing only silver dollars in Southern Zhili. This implementation in Southern Zhili is in line with the interests of the people. After all, the people in Southern Zhili do not farm much, they mainly work and do business, and exchange Silver dollars are also convenient, so they are naturally more suitable for paying silver dollars than for paying grain.
At present, for the people in Jiangnan, life is really comfortable. They no longer have to worry about tyrants when doing business. New officials are also burning their own three fires when they take office. Moreover, due to the influence of the imperial assessment system, some local officials are in order to achieve political results. They will also give special treatment to merchants and handicraftsmen in terms of policies, so that the personal income of the people will rise slowly.
The population of Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, and Hangzhou has increased by tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Villas, gardens and even high-end residential areas have begun to appear one after another. The speed of urbanization is getting faster and faster, and the annual trade volume of a small town has exceeded With one million silver dollars, an ordinary civilian can earn thousands of silver dollars a day by selling goods in Songjiang.
However, the people were getting rich, and the imperial court was still at a loss.
An increasing proportion of the national revenue brought by maritime trade and colonial plunder has been invested in the maintenance of municipal funds in Jiangnan, causing governors in other places and even officials in the capital to have serious opinions.
Even the local officials in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang couldn't stand it. To build a road, their own government had to squeeze out the funds allocated by the central court, but the local chaebols could spend tens of thousands of dollars for an oiran overnight.
Establishing a new tax system in Jiangnan was the most important and final step for Zhu Houzhao to reform the Jiangnan system while he was in Nanjing. It was also what many officials in the imperial court wanted to do.
There is no way, the officials of the imperial court cannot work for free without getting paid. From a certain point of view, the imperial court is the bandit group that rules this place. If you want the bandits to protect your safety and not take it directly from you, you have to Pay protection fee.
If the court does not establish a tax system to collect legal protection fees, officials can only use hidden rules to collect them, which breeds corruption. The most typical example is power rent-seeking.
In fact, in the third year of Zhu Houzhao's stay in Nanjing, signs of this had already begun to appear. Some new officials who entered the officialdom began to feel unbalanced when they saw that businessmen and common people were getting rich one after another, and began to obtain benefits from businessmen groups. , also began to use power for their own personal gain, and some even directly took advantage of others.
"Nowadays, most of South Zhili and Zhejiang are mainly engaged in business and industry, but the taxes are still based on the collection of land taxes. The tax is one for thirty. Calculated based on the price of grain, one of the profits of thirty silver dollars will be taken. But now even if it is The profits earned by ordinary people from doing business are no less than several thousand silver dollars at a time. This tax policy is extremely unreasonable!”
At this time, Wang Shouren raised the phenomenon he discovered in southern Zhili in the court.
But at this time, Wang Chengyu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I think that what Wangge Lao said is wrong. Southern Zhili and Zhejiang have always had the heaviest annual taxes, and other provinces are not half as good as Southern Zhili and Zhejiang. The imperial court should spare no effort to save the people's strength. How can we impose additional levies? It is absolutely impossible to impose additional levies. ”
"How many acres of land are there between South Zhili and Zhejiang, how many acres are there in other provinces, how many households are there between South Zhili and Zhejiang, and how many households are in other provinces? Doesn't Wang Butang not know? It is normal for South Zhili and Zhejiang's annual tax to be heavier than other provinces. It is abnormal to be lighter than other provinces!”
Wang Shouren couldn't help but retorted. He was also from Zhejiang himself, but he was also a shareholder of Imperial Bank. Naturally, he knew whether the current policy would benefit the imperial court or the local gentry in Zhejiang. However, for this reason, he now had to add some more for the benefit of the country. This will allow the imperial court to have more financial resources to build the barren areas of the northwest and southwest.
"Your Majesty, I believe that light corvee and low taxes are the benevolent government of the court. The prosperity of the people is also a blessing to the court. The court should govern the country with frugality, so why should it take away the interests of the people!"
Zhang Jin, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing, did not propose to increase taxes, but he seemed to have a reasonable point. Tax reduction and exemption were inherently good governance, and there was never any talk of increasing taxes in the prosperous dynasty.
"However, this year's audit found that the annual tax revenue and expenditure of all provinces in the world do not balance, and there are six provinces that suffer from Yin Mao Liang, namely Yunnan, Guizhou, the newly added Gansu, South Zhili, and Zhejiang;
Yunnan-Guizhou and Gansu have always been poor, and it is normal to be unable to make ends meet. Originally, Yunnan-Guizhou relied entirely on Sichuan's annual tax supply, and Gansu also relied entirely on imperial funding;
But in the past two years, Nanzhili and Zhejiang have also begun to make ends meet, and even have a deficit of tens of millions of silver dollars! However, the revenue from sea trade between South Zhili and Zhejiang is no less than one billion silver dollars. I dare to ask why South Zhili and Zhejiang are still losing money! It needs to be supported by the imperial court in Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Shandong and other places! ”
Cong Lan, the first left servant of the Account Department of the Audit Office of the Ming Dynasty, took the lead in the audit work of the Ming Dynasty and began to be fully responsible for the management and control of the state-owned assets of the Ming Dynasty. However, because of this, he discovered the financial burden brought about by the reform of the Jiangnan system, which forced him to He came to Nanjing and helped Wang Shouren urge Emperor Zhu Houzhao to reform the tax policy in Jiangnan.
As a Shandong native, he didn't want his Shandong people to use the money they spent to buy sweet potatoes to pay Jiangnan officials to pay for brothels.
"Your Majesty, the imperial court has income from mineral taxes in the north and maritime trade in the south, as well as the benefits of new overseas territories. Not to mention that Southern Zhili and Zhejiang cannot make ends meet. Even if the provinces in the pass cannot make ends meet, it will not affect the operation of the imperial court. In the past, the two Song Dynasties used the benefits of maritime trade , still able to support officials many times more generous than those in the Ming Dynasty today, and now the Ming Dynasty's sea trade The benefits are even greater than those in the two Song dynasties. The country's wealth has been several times that of the two Song dynasties. Why care about the fact that Southern Zhili and Zhejiang cannot make ends meet? People in other provinces do not need to envy the wealth of the people in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang. The imperial court has banned it. According to the Luyin system, if they want to make money, they can come to Zhili and Zhejiang in the south! ”
At this time, Nanjing Huke also started talking about the solution to the matter.
But Zhu Houzhao just wanted to laugh after hearing what Xie Yiyi said. He had to admit that what Xie Yiyi said was either stupid or bad.
It is true that the imperial court is plundering most of the wealth from the outside world, but it cannot only enrich you in southern Zhili and Zhejiang. Wouldn't that exacerbate the income gap between the north and the south and widen the gap between rich and poor? "People in other provinces do not need to be envious. If you want to get rich, you can "Come to Zhili and Zhejiang in the south" is also ridiculous. Can foreigners and locals be the same?
Cong Lan's face was obviously red with anger at this time: "Jie, what you said is simply selfish and ignores the overall situation. There are more than just Southern Zhili and Zhejiang in the world. The imperial court's money needs to be used to support the army and provide disaster relief. How can we alone Benefit to you in Nanzhili! The people of Zhejiang in Nanzhili are already rich and can eat six kinds of livestock every day. They live in two-story buildings, but the people in the northwest still live in caves, and the people in the southwest still live in rock caves! The people in the southeast are already so wealthy, but the people in the southwest and northwest still don’t have enough food and clothing. How can it be thicker in the southeast and thinner in the northwest and southwest? ”
"Your Majesty, what Minister Cong said makes sense. Since he is unwilling to allow the imperial court's benefits to benefit the people of Jiangnan, it would be better if the imperial court no longer supplies supplies to Nanzhili and Zhejiang! Why bother to give more to the people and compete with them for benefits? Most of the officials in Jiangnan are recommended by the imperial court and elected by the local councils. They are all selfless officials who work for the welfare of the people, and they are all as honest as water and do not care about money. ”
Yu Cai, the left minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Civil Affairs, also said something at this time.
"I think what Shilang Yu said is true. Southern Zhili and Zhejiang can no longer receive relief from the imperial court!" Wan Chao, the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also said.
"What do you think of Wu Wending, governor of South Zhili, and Huang Zhong, governor of Zhejiang? You are in charge of these two provinces, so you should know best," Zhu Houzhao asked.
Huang Zhong glanced at Wang Chengyu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing. He knew that his position had something to do with Wang Butang. The opinions of the Jiangnan plutocrats behind Wang Butang must be the same as Wang Butang, but he was a member of the Zhejiang Province. The governor cannot make his political purpose too obvious. After all, Wang Shouren, the cabinet minister, and Cong Butang, who is in charge of the court's state-owned assets audit, cannot offend him too harshly.
Therefore, Huang Zhong said: "You can try it!"
All of a sudden, the entire court became extremely silent!
Wang Shouren and Cong Lan angrily wanted to tear Huang Zhong into pieces!
Wang Chengyu and others pursed their lips, showing some pride.
"In this case, let Nanzhili and Zhejiang be responsible for their own profits and losses," Zhu Houzhao asked pretentiously, but at this time, Wu Wending stood up and said: "No! Your Majesty, I believe that Nanzhili and Zhejiang are not the same." Change the tax policy and also Anyone who refuses to use money from the imperial court should be killed immediately! Those who try to prevent the imperial court from changing the tax policy may be doing something for the sake of the people of this town, but those who advise this policy are evil officials who do not want to benefit the people of the two provinces! There are no people either!”
When Yu Cai, Wan Chao, and Huang Zhong heard what Wu Wending said, they all became frightened and hurriedly knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty, I am definitely not the evil officials mentioned by Wu Futai!"
Zhu Houzhao just smiled faintly and asked Wu Wending: "In your opinion, should the tax policy be changed?"
"Change! If you don't change, it will only force officials to become bandits. Colleagues in the court may not be afraid of the harm of officials, gentry and subordinates, but once the court governs Jiangnan with morality, it will only make the laws of Jiangnan ineffective and the court will eliminate them. Punishing evil will only lead to wasting all previous efforts!”
When Wu Wending said this, Wang Chengyu, Zhang Jin and others were very angry, thinking that Wu Wending, a Huguang native, really could stand and talk without pain in his back.
(End of chapter)