"this......"
Zhu Gaoxu scratched his beard. He really didn't know much about the land system of the Ming Dynasty.
The knowledgeable Li Jinglong took over the words at the right time and played the role of admiration assigned to him by Zhu Di.
"Emperor Taizu Gao founded the country and established the land system inherited from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, that is, the two-field system."
"The nature of the land in the Ming Dynasty was divided into two types: official land and private land. Among them, official land was about 1.2 million hectares, accounting for about one-seventh, and private land was about 7.2 million hectares, accounting for six-sevenths. Generally speaking, private land was more than official land. Mr. Tian’s pattern.”
Li Jinglong paused and then continued: "The main sources of official land are, first, the official land inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, and the second is the land lost when the local separatist forces were pacified... For example, the puppet king of Wu Zhang Shicheng was pacified At that time, all the land belonging to the puppet Wu dignitaries were classified as official land. Most of the evil rich and wealthy people in the Su, Song, Jia, and Hu areas also had their land confiscated because of consecutive crimes."
The so-called evil rich and common people, well, are actually the local scholar-bureaucrat families that were inherited from the late Song Dynasty to the late Yuan Dynasty and entrenched in Su, Song, Jia, Hu and other prefectures.
"In addition to the property of the royal family, vassal kings, nobles, etc., there are also farmlands in the official fields, which are divided into military villages, merchant villages, and civilian villages. The latter two can be ignored, mainly military villages across the country. Emperor Taizu Gao stipulated that every One dou of rent was collected per mu, and the rest was used to support the officers and soldiers of the guard station."
"Private lands are collected from fish scales, which are divided into general maps and sub-maps. The sub-maps are based on lijia, and then the sub-maps of several li are summarized into a general map of townships, which is updated every ten years."
Li Jinglong thought for a moment and said: "If we count according to the first point, who owns all the materials for producing food, such as cultivated land, cattle, and seeds... The official land of the Ming Dynasty belongs to the state, and it is distributed to It is used by the royal family, vassal kings, nobles, and the military, while private land belongs to farmers or landowners.”
"The second point, what is the status of those who produce food and those who own it, are landlords and tenant farmers, as well as homesteaders, both. The third point, who ultimately distributes the food, also arises based on the second point."
Jiang Xinghuo nodded. He spoke in great detail. He was obviously a knowledgeable young man, not just a Qinhuai drifter.
At this time, Zhu Gaoxu's attitude towards Li Jinglong had obviously changed.
Zhu Gaoxu thought to himself: "I didn't expect that Li Jinglong is not good at fighting, but he knows a lot about other things."
"What you said is very good. Then I will briefly talk about these three points of the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, and Yuan Dynasty according to the differences between dynasties. Listen to what is the difference from now, and use this to understand the evolution of the land system. "
Jiang Xinghuo said slowly: "In the early Tang Dynasty, the Guanlong military meritorious aristocratic group inherited the land equalization system since the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, and Sui Dynasties, adapting to the sharp population decline after the war in the late Sui Dynasty; in the middle Tang Dynasty, due to the destruction of the Anshi Rebellion, With the seriousness of land annexation, the land equalization system was abandoned, and the system of renting and renting servants was adopted, and the private ownership of land was recognized. In the late Tang Dynasty, in order to reduce the burden on the people and to collect taxes efficiently, the two-tax system reform was carried out... Generally speaking, In the Tang Dynasty, the land system was owned by the state, gradually transitioning to ownership by landlords and peasants, and finally transitioning to ownership by large landowners. The tax system also changed with the changes in the land system."
"In the Song Dynasty, due to loose economic policies that did not inhibit the annexation of private land, the land owned by the state was greatly reduced. The land system was basically owned by landlords and supplemented by owner-cultivators."
"And it is precisely because of the land system that landlords will do their best to annex land, which will inevitably lead to a large number of bankruptcies among homesteaders."
"So Wang Anshi implemented the Young Crops Law, trying to subsidize the farmers in terms of 'production means' and curb land annexation."
"But it is a pity that Wang Anshi faced opposition from the entire landlord class. Even if Wang Anshi did not dare to change the two points of 'the mutual status of those who produce food and those who own it' and 'who will ultimately distribute the food', he would not touch the landlords. Reforms based on class interests ultimately failed."
"As for the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty implemented the two-field system in the land system and the tax farming system in the tax system. After satisfying the interests of the Mongolian aristocracy, it allowed the Han bureaucrats and landlords to suck the bones out of the people without touching the interests of the landlord class at all. In the end, The oppressed peasant class has lost large areas of land and will inevitably revolt, there is nothing to say.”
Jiang Xinghuo finally concluded.
"So, looking at the evolution of the land system in past dynasties over the past thousand years, we can draw a simple rule."
"The land system (that is, the nature of land ownership) determines the tax system. The ratio of the landlord class to the peasant class determines the tax base of the dynasty. The scale of the tax base, mainly agricultural taxes, determines the longevity of the dynasty."
What Jiang Xinghuo did not give as an example was the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty in the future.
That was a being who magically jumped out of the above rules at the end of the dynasty.
The reason is also very simple. The evolution from agricultural society to industrial society has caused the empirical laws of agricultural dynasties to become invalid.
In other words, the law did not expire, or the expansion of tax bases such as customs duties and taxes extended the life of the Qing Dynasty. However, tariffs and fees had nothing to do with land ownership, and therefore were not determined by the ratio of the landlord class to the peasant class.
Zhu Gaoxu just realized it at this time, and he said excitedly.
"So, as long as the land system is used to control the landlord class so that its proportion does not become too large, the life of the Ming Dynasty can be extended!"
When Li Jinglong heard this, he was speechless for a moment.
This is indeed the truth.
But this is just like you can live forever as long as you don’t get sick and age. Isn’t this nonsense?
The land annexation carried out by the landlord class is something engraved in the bones and has nothing to do with people.
On the contrary, if a tenant farmer becomes a small landowner, he will be more diligent and crazy in annexing land than the original landowner.
Zhu Gaochi, who is next door, is obviously more sensitive to state governance than Li Jinglong. He clearly realizes that what Jiang Xinghuo said is definitely not nonsense!
“Land determines taxes!
The proportion determines the tax base!
The tax base determines lifespan! "
Hearing this profound summary of the rules, for Zhu Gaochi, who was in charge of the national affairs of the Ming Dynasty, it was like drinking a bowl of ice water in the middle of summer, soothing from head to stomach.
Zhu Gaochi was a little shocked. He had previously imagined the limits of Jiang Xinghuo's talent.
But he didn't expect that Jiang Xinghuo had already reached the limit of his imagination in just one sentence.
Jiang Xinghuo turned out to be such a great talent, able to explain the root causes of the land system and taxation system that have existed for thousands of years.
This is something that he thinks is something that even the rare wise ministers and talents Yang Rong, Yang Shiqi and others cannot do!
Zhu Gaochi turned around and grabbed Zhu Di's sleeve and said happily: "Congratulations, father, for having such an amazing talent!"
Zhu Di smiled reservedly, patted the elder's shoulder and said.
"Where is this going... Listen, since Jiang Xinghuo has summed up the law of how the land system determines the lifespan of a dynasty, he will definitely come up with a way to solve it."
