Then, the cadre began to explain the parts of the civil law that were closely related to the big families.
The most important thing is about slaves. Almost without exception, the wealthy households brought a large number of slaves. Slavery was already very popular in the Ming Dynasty - when a man went out, there would be more than 20 domestic slaves accompanying him - but in the late Ming Dynasty, wars and famines were frequent, a large number of people were displaced, and the cost of keeping slaves was extremely low.
The Senate did not welcome private slaveholding. In particular, the vast majority of slaves in China's feudal society were used for family service and had no output except consuming social wealth. Moreover, slaveholding also allowed large households to directly control a large number of people, which was even more unbearable for the Senate.
Therefore, the Senate legally restricted slavery. Not only was the slave trade completely prohibited, there were also various restrictions on existing slaves. Anyone who keeps slaves under the governance of the Senate must pay a one-time "slave registration fee" to continue to keep slaves, and then pay a "slave use tax" based on head count every year.
This article immediately aroused a buzz of discussion below. What kind of royal method is this? If your family buys slaves, do you still have to pay taxes to the government when using them? And you have to pay it every year!
Wait, this is not over yet: According to the laws of the Senate, there is a quota for the number of slaves per household. If "slaves exceed the quota", the slave use tax will be collected according to a progressive system. In other words, the more you raise, the higher the tax rate you pay.
This policy was not only to reduce the number of slaves, but also to force large families to divide their households into one of the legal means. To pay less tax. The original large families with several generations living under one roof would inevitably consider dividing households to increase the slave occupancy quota to avoid taxes.
Seeing everyone around him showing dissatisfaction, Zhuo Yihang nodded secretly. Although he himself also came from an official family, he also called slaves and maids at home. However, he does not approve of keeping a large number of slaves and exploiting them.
Kun thief's hand. Although it was not stated that slavery was prohibited, it actually greatly increased the burden of slavery and restricted slavery in disguise. It can be called benevolent government - but this benevolent government is too stinky. He admired and despised him at the same time.
The cadre went on to talk about a lot of things to pay attention to when living in Lingao for about half an hour. Although it didn't last long, it was explained very thoroughly and clearly. After speaking, Zhuo Yifan saw him saying a few more words to Li Xiaopeng, then saw him take out a page from his briefcase and hand it to him. Li Xiaopeng stamped it, tore off half of it and handed it back to him. This cadre just went.
Zhuo Yifan secretly wondered: It would make sense if he was given a "personnel job". What's the deal with stamping and tearing paper?
It turns out that this "preaching policy" is not free. It is not the scope of the civil affairs department to provide legal education classes for wealthy people. The immigration policy of the Senate is to "open the door" and everyone is welcome to come from the land of the Ming Dynasty. No particular category of people is given preferential treatment. So there is a fee as usual. The cost will naturally be paid by Qiong'an Inn. Li Xiaopeng stamped it, and the slip was the proof of payment.
Next, it’s time for Li Xiaopeng’s speech. He was able to talk about the most important thing for rich people: buying houses and land.
Needless to say, buying a house, whether you want to immigrate as a family or live in a "cunning rabbit hole", you must have a long-term residence. In order to continue to maintain the family's traditional life of fine clothing and food, as well as the "Australian life" that his wife, young master and young lady envied, he had to buy land and property.
However, Li Xiaopeng's words once again poured cold water on them. The land policy here in Lingao is very complicated. It is different from Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, as long as the land owner agrees to sell it, no matter what the land was before you bought it, you can basically do whatever you want after buying it. Build a house, build a workshop, raise pigs, grow vegetables or make a cemetery. Usually no one will come to ask, let alone the urban management and city appearance and so on. Remnants of this laissez-faire system persisted until 1949. At that time, the dignified residential areas in Beijing also had various livestock pens and poultry sheds, including pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks and geese. The killing of pigs and sheep is also carried out directly and openly on the streets of the city. As for the existence of a cemetery in the city, it was not worth mentioning for any city at that time.
Here in Lingao, the land is divided into various uses. According to the land planning practices of another time and space, the county’s land is divided into different uses such as residential, industrial, cultural, educational, and agricultural uses. I went to a place and saw that the feng shui was good, so I bought it for a cemetery. The scenery there was beautiful and I bought it to build a villa. Under the rule of the Senate, if you wanted to build your own house, you could only buy residential land. It is simply impossible for a private person to buy a cemetery and build a cemetery.
The residential land in Lingao is unfortunately very tight. On the one hand, there is the demand for the expansion of industrial and agricultural production, and on the other hand, there is the influx of a large number of foreign people. exacerbating this tension. In order to provide more housing for immigrants and alleviate the housing shortage. The Executive Committee's approval of the purchase of private residential land is strict in order to leave enough residential land for the construction of apartment buildings and dormitories for sale and rent.
Of course, people who are interested in buying land can also purchase all their residential land from private hands, but there are very few indigenous people who own private residential land. After all, the original population of Lingao is less than 40,000. The homestead land they owned was only a very small part compared to the Senate, which had seized all the official land and wasteland in the county.
Lingao's housing shortage has not only caused the current residential land prices to be extremely high, but also the only construction unit in the county: Lingao Construction Corporation has a completely full schedule. If you want to buy the land and build your own house, Lingao Basics It is impossible to go up.
It is precisely for this reason that Li Sunqian's house business is so prosperous. It can be said that the only real estate company established by his family in this county that can provide services that meet the needs of these large households and can guarantee delivery within one year.
The housing problem is okay. After all, the Li family's real estate company will solve it. It's just a question of how much money to spend. But "buying a house" is far more difficult than "buying a house".
According to the thinking of the wealthy people, buying land and collecting rent is naturally the safest way. In ancient Chinese society, land has always been the property with the strongest value-preserving ability. It does not require complex knowledge or a lot of energy, but the income is quite stable. In the event of war, hide the land deed and go away. As long as peace returns to the world and you take out the land deed, the government will recognize it no matter whether there is a change of dynasty or not. It doesn't matter if all the tenants are dead, just recruit more tenants.
Therefore, not only rural landowners considered this, but also businessmen and court officials who made a fortune in industry and commerce. After getting the money, they bought land on a large scale and collected rent. Even the Zheng family, the overlord of maritime business, purchased a large amount of land and became the largest landowner in Fujian.
The rich people ran to Lingao, naturally they also had such thoughts. However, at this seminar, they soon discovered that this road was blocked.
The Senate did not legally prohibit the tenancy system, so the past tenancy system could still operate according to old customs. However, from a legal and economic perspective, multiple legal documents promulgated by the Senate have imposed many restrictions and suppressions on the tenancy system.
After the tax reform, the landowners' usual practice of concealing land to evade taxes and shifting the tax burden no longer works. The strict implementation of the progressive agricultural tax has made the burden on tenant landowners very heavy. The most unbearable thing for them was the senate's drastic measures to reduce wages from the labor force. Intensive state-owned and privately owned farms and booming industrial and commercial enterprises have caused former tenant farmers to relocate elsewhere.
There are many immigrants entering Lingao, but the distribution rights are all in the hands of Australians. Free immigrants had too many employment options to be willing to be tenants of landowners.
The result was that tenancy landowners found it difficult to maintain tenants on their land, and tenant turnover rates were high. No matter how much land a landlord has, it will be in vain if there is no one to cultivate it. To retain tenants, we have to provide better share ratios and conditions for recruiting tenants. Land income has plummeted - Tiandihui has now begun to consciously not provide agricultural services to tenant landowners. They are completely unable to enjoy the benefits of agricultural technological advancement.
In the end, local landlords either sold their land to engage in industry and commerce, or asked Tiandihui, the largest "tenant" in Lingao, to manage their own land. There were very few landlords left who continued to maintain the tenancy system. Especially small and medium-sized landowners, almost no one is spared.
It is not too difficult for the newly arrived wealthy people to buy land locally. Although there is relatively little developed land, there is a lot of "wasteland to be developed for agricultural use." It's hard to run a business, and it's obviously not feasible to just recruit a few tenants to solve everything.
So Li Xiaopeng proposed a package of investment solutions.
If you don’t pursue profits and don’t want to use your brain, you can just buy fields or “wasteland to be developed for agriculture”, and then go directly to Tiandihui for full or half package...
"Excuse me, Uncle Li, what do you mean by full package and half package?" Someone asked after hearing what Li Xiaopeng said. Rich people attach great importance to property purchase - this may be related to their future survival and development in Lingao.
Li Xiaopeng explained that the so-called "all-inclusive" means that the land is fully entrusted to the Tiandi Society for management, and the landowner does not have to control anything. At that time, the share will be collected according to the lease. There is no need to invest a penny, even the tax burden will be paid by Tiandihui. But in this case, the landlord's income will be quite small.
In the all-inclusive operation, Tiandihui will first collect service fees, then develop wasteland, improve water and soil, purchase seeds and fertilizers, long-term labor and agricultural machinery... until the final tax payment, all expenses incurred in operating the land will have to be paid. Deducted in advance from the harvest of the land. The remaining net income is shared with the landlords. Landowners can get roughly 30% of net income.
If the fields are relatively barren or simply wasteland and the initial investment is large, then the landowner may not get any share at all in the first few years. (To be continued)
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