Lu You was deeply surprised by everything Wang Qi said.
Not only is it a matter of having a full stomach, but also the matter of farmers in the Ming Dynasty paying taxes with copper coins.
This is not a simple matter. If nothing else, where did the farmers of the Ming Dynasty get so many copper coins?
If you don’t have copper coins, how can you pay taxes with copper coins?
Are all farmers in Ming Dynasty so rich?
"Collect copper coins? How is this done?"
Lu You quickly asked.
Wang Qi explained patiently.
"Isn't it difficult? Before the tax season every year, the imperial court would send officials to purchase grain from farmers. Farmers could freely choose how much grain to sell to the imperial court. The imperial court would purchase the grain according to the local grain market price, and then store it in warehouses set up across the country. In the big granary.
Firstly, these grains can be used as a reserve grain for the court in case of emergencies. Secondly, it can give farmers more copper coins, which will not only facilitate future tax payment and transportation, but also facilitate farmers to purchase goods and feed a group of traders. This is the best of both worlds. matter. "
"I see……"
Lu You thought of the extremely complicated tax system in the Southern Song Dynasty.
All kinds of physical taxes have caused great pain to the people. Not only do they have to pay the full amount of taxes, but they also have to bear the additional cost of losses during the transportation of the physical goods. This cost has become an important means for officials to exploit farmers. .
As a court official, Lu You was familiar with this rule. He deeply felt that such rules were inappropriate and unfair, but he had no better way.
After the tax reform of the Ming Dynasty, copper coins were fully used to pay taxes, which was not only convenient, quick and clear at a glance, but also directly abolished this part of the transportation loss cost, reducing the burden on farmers.
Good policy, just...
"Wouldn't it take a lot of effort to make such a change?"
Wang Qi nodded.
“In the past, paying taxes required paying in kind, such as grain, cloth, and even many strange things. Not only was it troublesome to collect taxes, but the most difficult thing was that these physical items were easily damaged.
Corruption and damage during transportation are very serious, and this part of the loss in the past has to be passed on to the farmers by the court, and the farmers are required to pay this part of the loss fee in advance to make up for the loss of the court.
This part of the excess tax revenue is often not handed over to the imperial treasury, but is handled by local officials themselves. This greatly indulges the greed of local officials and allows them to make a fuss about this tax to make money.
The farmers were miserable and the court could not collect taxes. This situation had to be changed. So after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty felt that this regulation was not conducive to the people and would instead help the government to enrich their own pockets, so he decided to change it.
However, after many changes, taxation is still inconvenient and farmers are still deeply troubled. His Majesty thought for a long time and decided to collect taxes in copper coins. Although he has experienced many twists and turns, in order to facilitate farmers and reduce their burdens, nothing is impossible. . "
Wang Qi's answer left Lu You speechless.
He felt that he was humiliating himself by asking this question.
What Wang Qi said next made Lu You even more surprised.
“In addition to taxation, the Ming court also did a lot of practical things, such as allocating land to farmers and establishing farmers’ associations so that everyone had land and farmers worked hard to cultivate. Then the court would provide high-quality agricultural tools on a large scale at relatively low prices.
In the past, the salt and iron monopoly of the old court sold low-quality agricultural tools to farmers at high prices. As a result, farmers could not obtain good agricultural tools, which reduced production efficiency and made it difficult to turn the soil in winter. If locusts lay eggs, they would not be able to turn the soil. Freeze locust larvae to death.
His Majesty the Emperor understood this, and just like salt, he massively reduced the price of farm tools and strictly controlled the quality so that farmers could buy high-quality farm tools. This not only improved production efficiency, but also allowed them to plow the soil in winter and freeze locusts to death. It can reduce the probability of locust plague. "
Wang Qi smiled and said: "When the Jin Kingdom was still there, there were frequent locust plagues in Shandong, which often caused the fields to lose their harvest and farmers starved to death. However, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, locust plagues rarely occurred. Even if they did, they were on a very small scale, which was completely OK. If it is extinguished, the food harvest will basically be good for many years."
"Can the locust plague be controlled in this way?"
Lu You was a little surprised and said, "I've never noticed this before..."
Wang Qi nodded.
"Locusts like to lay their eggs in the ground, so even in winter, unless it is extremely cold and heavy snow, they can survive. In the past, farmers lacked farm tools and could not turn over the soil in winter. Once the winter is not cold, they cannot freeze to death and hide deep. Insect eggs in the soil.
Now every winter, the farmers' association will organize farmers to regularly turn the soil to the upper layer. Even if it doesn't snow, the cold wind will still kill many pests. In this way, when spring comes, , the pests are greatly reduced. "
After Lu You heard this, he was silent for a while, feeling quite moved.
"Oh, that's it. I really haven't heard of the Tao here."
"There are many ways to manage civil affairs, but many problems can be solved. As long as the court is determined to make progress, these problems can be solved. Even in the face of floods and droughts, as long as there are enough water conservancy projects, it can be overcome."
Wang Qi smiled and pointed to the east: "To the east here is a construction site for a water conservancy project. Construction started in the third year of Hongwu and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The project is very large, so four rural farmers' associations will lead 21 villages. The Peasants' Association gathered strong men from 21 villages to undertake this project.
The imperial court allocated funds and sent project guidance, but the strong men of a village worked hard during the slack time, and finally the project was about to be completed. After the success of this project, the cultivated land in the four townships will benefit from it, and land irrigation will be much easier.
As for water conservancy projects like this, starting from the first year of Hongwu, Ming Dynasty has built more than 500 water conservancy projects in more than 500 counties across the country. They were all funded by the imperial court, and the township farmers' association and the village farmers' association were responsible for coordinating the labor force. Work together and get it done together. "
"so many?"
Lu You was shocked: "This farmers' association is too powerful, isn't it?"
"The Peasants' Association is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's defeat of the Jin Kingdom and the founding of the country. His Majesty the Emperor attaches great importance to it. Even when the county government is administering government, it needs a lot of help from the Peasants' Association. The county government's administration absolutely cannot bypass the Peasants' Association, which is tantamount to curbing The possibility of the county running amok.”
Wang Qi was quite proud of the institutional advantages of the Ming Dynasty and said with a smile: "Because of the existence of the Peasants' Association, farmers throughout the Ming Dynasty have been organized and mobilized to do major things and build projects in one go. With such a concerted effort from top to bottom, nothing can be accomplished. What’s the point of the matter?”
Lu You's eyes widened and he didn't come back to his senses for a while.
He never thought that the system of the Ming Dynasty could actually have such a function. It could actually organize the entire Ming Dynasty's farmers and let them work together to build projects. How powerful is this?
"There are so many things to do, so many water conservancy projects to be built, and we have to fight all over the place and carry out large-scale construction projects... Is there no problem with the finances of the Ming Dynasty?"
This became Lu You's biggest doubt.
And this is what Wang Qi feels most proud of.
"It can still be maintained. Doesn't Deputy Lu think it's strange that the Ming Dynasty collected less taxes and spent more money? That's not the case. The Ming Dynasty did not collect much tax from individual farmers. It was very small compared with the previous dynasty, but the total amount was far higher than the previous dynasty. .”
"How is this going?"
Lu You was puzzled.
"Because the Ming Dynasty eliminated the landlords, gentry and corrupt officials."
Wang Qi put away his smile and said seriously: "The Ming Dynasty eradicated those rentiers who bullied the court and the peasants, eradicated them all, directly managed the peasants, and managed taxes. Although the taxes collected from individual peasants were greatly decreased, but the total amount increased greatly.
At first, I thought it was unbelievable, but soon I realized that so many taxes were eaten up by the landlords, gentry and corrupt officials. They stood in the middle and levied and extorted money far more than the imperial court. There is no tax collected at all.
The peasants' land was taken away by them and they became their tenants to produce food for them. The government had no control over the tenants and could only directly ask the landlords to collect taxes. Landowners were often powerful and had unclear relations with the government, so the taxes would not be paid. Not sure.
Some officials are more diligent in their duties and take a small amount. Some officials take the benefits themselves and treat the landlords as poor households and hide them without reporting them. For example, a landlord owns 10,000 acres of land, but because of his good relationship with the government, he spends money and bribes. Officials, so the officials concealed his land situation, regarded him as a poor household, and only collected a small amount of tax.
As a result, the agricultural tax on 10,000 acres of land was swallowed up by the landlords, gentry and corrupt officials. The court could not get this part of the tax at all. And this was only the situation in one place. If you look at the whole country, how miserable would it be? Does the court still collect taxes? It will only become less and less. "
