Gao Pragmatic began to reform Shuimayi more than ten years ago. Until last year when he took office as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to gather financial power and completed the supervision of the Shuimayi system by the Ministry of Revenue, the "dual leadership system" of Shuimayi was basically realized. The architecture is completed.
In essence, this system can be seen as the Ministry of War having the nominal ownership of Shuimayi, while the Ministry of Households has the actual operating rights of Shuimayi.
In this way, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has assumed some of the functions of the "State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission" to a certain extent. Of course, it has not been copied, because the differences in national systems are objective realities. Some things cannot be copied even if they want to, and high pragmatism has no choice but to try its best. "God-like".
This time, his reform proposal for the express delivery shop is to lead the express delivery shop to the State Post Bureau. In a highly pragmatic vision, the main operation idea of the express shop in the future will be to use the revenue from the delivery of private letters and light parcels to support the original state function of transmitting information for the imperial court.
In other words, state functions are still its basic functions, but in order to ensure that this basic function is not disordered and does not cause serious financial pressure on the country itself, the imperial court allows the express delivery shop to use the basic facilities and organizations invested by the country in the early years to carry out Private business, using the income from private business to relieve the pressure brought by its huge financial expenditure.
What are the basic facilities and organizations invested by the state? The most obvious basic facility is of course the construction of countless "shops" across the country, and the so-called organization is the many shop soldiers that the imperial court has always maintained. But in fact, the road itself is also a basic facility. Although the mountain roads in some places are relatively bad, no matter how bad they are, they were repaired in the past. Just because the quality is poor, it cannot be regarded as investment.
The investment and organizational structure of these facilities were the basis for the imperial court to conduct three-level division of accounts with Puzi and Pubing. According to Gao Pragmatic's current thinking, the imperial court can account for 30% of the "postage revenue" by then, each express delivery shop can account for 20%, and the shop soldiers who perform postal tasks will account for half of it, and a system of more reward for more work will be implemented.
In addition, Gao Pragmatic also stated in the reform post that the 30% taken by the imperial court should have a basic principle, that is, it should be earmarked and cannot be misappropriated at will. In addition to ensuring the construction and maintenance of express delivery houses and other facilities, this money should also be used for road maintenance, road construction, ferry construction, bridge construction and other related matters.
According to what Gao Jingshi said in his essay, this money will definitely have a surplus in addition to maintaining existing facilities. Those surpluses will be used over time to build roads, bridges and other facilities that can facilitate the people. This in itself is also a move for the court to benefit the people. Over time, , will surely make the people of the world "see the road and the bridge, and all remember your kindness."
Shuimayi solves the problem of people's travel, and the express shop solves the problem of delivering letters and packages. At this time... it seems that there is something missing?
That’s right, the goods still need to be delivered.
The last carriage of the troika of the Ming Dynasty Station System is the delivery station. The delivery station was originally the system for transporting materials in the Ming Dynasty. It was mainly responsible for military supplies and money and grain taxes collected by the court. Therefore, the delivery station is the same as the water transportation of later generations. It is a transportation system that has a large transport volume but does not pursue speed.
According to the regulations of the early Ming Dynasty, the delivery station "sets up boats and all are decorated with red. For example, if there are 600 materials, there will be thirteen watermen in each boat; if there are 500 materials, there will be 12 people; if there are less than 400 materials, there will be 11 people; if there are less than 300 materials, there will be 11 people in each boat." There are ten of them. They all choose those who have less than five dan of food to make up for it.
For example, a large cart carrying rice and ten stones requires three husbands, three oxen, and ten cloth bags; a small cart carrying rice and three stones requires one husband and one ox. Each husband has an ox, and those who elect him can provide him with fifteen dan of grain. If there is insufficient, all households will share the food and become one husband. "
In the early years, there were all officials responsible for delivery, including one ambassador, one deputy envoy, and a centurion. The transportation tasks were carried out by soldiers in land stations, while the water routes were carried out by shipowners in various places.
This kind of delivery transportation basically adopts fixed points, fixed routes, and relay methods. As a full-time delivery business, the delivery office has well organized land transportation, sea and river transportation, which can be regarded as a historical progress.
But it is a pity that, like many other systems formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the delivery station system failed to persist. During the Hongzhi period, there were as many as 324 delivery stations across the country. However, during the Wanli period, Gao Pragmatic found through statistics that the number of delivery offices across the country had already dropped sharply. The latest statistical results showed that there were only more than 100 places left, which was almost on the verge of extinction.
What was a little embarrassing was that Gao Pingshi discovered that the fastest period for the imperial court to abolish delivery offices was during the Longqing reign of the late emperor Mu Zong. In just two years after Gao Gongqi returned to Beijing, 113 delivery offices were abolished across the country.
However, Gao Pragmatic did not keep the matter secret because it involved his third uncle Gao Wenzhenggong. Instead, he analyzed the origin and impact of this situation in detail.
According to Gao's pragmatic analysis, Gao Gong's main reason for abolishing these delivery stations was actually very simple: there were too many old debts left over from the Jiajing period, and the court was seriously in deficit. The arrears of official salaries and military pay together were as high as More than ten million taels.
Considering that the official annual income of the imperial court at that time was only about 4 million taels, and the land tax and grain tax directly transferred to Jiubian were not counted. After deducting normal expenses, it was just barely enough to survive every year. If this continues without changes, it means that this old debt may last forever.
The so-called finance boils down to two points: revenue and expenditure. When there is a financial problem, there are only two solutions: increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
Gao Gong's approach is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure at the same time.
In terms of open source, while measuring the fields, we implemented a whip method to collect money from the country; at the same time, we opened customs and collected customs duties at the border after paying tribute; we also set an example to collect commercial taxes from various industries in Beijing that had begun to take shape. etc.
In terms of cost-saving, not only did the hugely expensive delivery department have to eliminate many low-utilized parts, but even the tomb of Emperor Longqing was directly used in the place where Jiajing built it for his father. Of course, there was a strange incident of the grandson using his grandfather's tomb. After Jiajing built it, he actually didn't move his father's tomb here. Gao Gong did a lot of things like that despite the pressure.
Gao Jingshi said in Shuli of the Innovation Station that it would be very unfair to criticize Gao Wenzhenggong's handling of the matter from the current standpoint. Because, during the eight years when Gao Wen was upholding the government, the imperial court not only made up for the huge deficit of more than 10 million taels, but also basically completed the construction of a new nine-sided defense system, which refers to the hollow enemy platform system proposed by Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang. Among them, about 20 million taels of silver were spent. If we don't rely on increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, how can we expect it to fall from the sky?
But the predecessors had things that the predecessors should have done, and the present generation also has the responsibilities that the present generation must bear. The delivery place had no choice but to withdraw back then, but now, it also needs to think about how to continue.
At first glance, if we want to solve the problem of delivery stations, we can also follow the idea of the previous express delivery shops, that is, open up civilian services to earn funds to maintain the country's public responsibilities. For example, since an express delivery shop can deliver letters to the private sector, then of course the delivery office can also deliver letters to the private sector. It seems to be exactly the same thing. How difficult can it be?
However, the situation at the delivery office is really different. The reason is that the origin of the personnel at the delivery office and the local jurisdiction it belongs to are completely different from Shuimayi and express delivery stores.
As I said just now, all positions in delivery are called "centurions." Centurion, this word refers to the military system.
Yes, the main personnel of the delivery station do come from the military. To be precise, they mainly come from the local health office, but its management rights are not unified.
What is "non-unity of management rights"? As part of the post system, delivery was also managed by the Chariot and Driving Department of the Ministry of War at the court level, but in its actual operation, it was under the jurisdiction of the local prefecture, state, county, and guard.
For example, during the Chenghua period, there were 21 delivery stations in Shanxi, of which 12 were under the jurisdiction of the county where they were located, 6 were under the jurisdiction of the scattered prefectures where they were located, 2 were under the jurisdiction of the direct prefecture where they were located, and 1 was under the jurisdiction of the prefecture.
In the Shitu Weisuo area, the delivery stations were under the jurisdiction of the local Weisuo. The 33 delivery stations in the Liaodong region recorded in the Liaodong Chronicle first published in 1488, the first year of Hongzhi, were all "led" by the Weisuo.
It's already quite complicated, but it's even more confusing. For example, this kind of ownership was adjusted from time to time. For example, in 1406, the fourth year of Yongle, the Jieshou Delivery Station, which originally belonged to Gaoyou Prefecture, and the Shaobo Delivery Station, which belonged to Jiangdu County, were suddenly placed under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Prefecture.
The same situation existed in the delivery offices under the jurisdiction of the Wei Suo. For example, in 1407, the fifth year of Yongle, the Weisha Delivery Office of the Puding Guard was changed to the jurisdiction of the Annan Guard.
Along with the jurisdiction, the ambassador of the delivery office must also follow the office and fall into the order of local government and health officials. Except for a small number of criminal prisoners distributed, the transporters and guarders were mainly sent from civilian households or military households and were included in the post-transmission corvee service in prefectures and counties.
The general principle of deliverymen is to send grain to the farmers. The deliverymen of the land delivery station are charged by grain households with less than fifteen dan and work together to build a cart. Each person is provided with an ox. If the amount is less than fifteen dan, then Several households pool their food together;
The price difference between water delivery carriers is less than five stones, which is the same as the number of people driving the boat. Every thirteen, twelve, eleven, or ten deliverymen will purchase six hundred materials, five hundred materials, and four hundred materials. , three hundred materials for the ship. If the ship is damaged, the department will "commission officials to calculate the materials and repair it."
Cars and boats obviously cost a lot of money to build, and the imperial court also wanted to ease the burden on the people. Therefore, "the law officials recorded the guilty people buying ships and delivering them to redeem themselves" and "using nearby people and criminals to prepare carts and oxen" Situations arise from time to time.
Even so, the construction or supply of vehicles, ships, and cattle still became a heavy burden for the people who served. In order to ensure the operation of the delivery stations, the imperial court and local yamen gradually changed the actual implementation to share the local corvee equally, so that the people in one area "had no distinction between each other and all contributed money to receive it."
The funds required for delivery are often divided into the taxes of several surrounding states and counties, and their names include deliverymen, watermen, defensemen, vehicles, boats, etc.
Due to the different sizes of delivery offices, the required funds also vary. Taking Daxing Delivery Station as an example, its establishment is "50 vehicles and 30 guards", and its scale is at a medium level in the country. In the early years of Wanli, Daxing's delivery required 2,280 taels of silver per year, which was provided by the five prefectures of Zhending, Guangping, Shunde, Daming, and Hejian.
A mid-level delivery office costs more than 2,000 taels per year. There are more than 100 and less than 200 delivery offices left in the country. If we calculate it as 150 and use this average price, it will cost a year. At least three hundred thousand taels, and this is pure expenditure, without any income.
Three hundred thousand taels, this is the result after Gao Gong laid off a large number of people. Think about it, twenty years ago when Gao Gong first came to power, the imperial court's annual income was less than four million taels, and just one delivery station cost almost 10%. How could the imperial court survive without poverty?
But some people will find a problem and say that since the money comes from the local government, what does it have to do with the central government? What does it have to do with Gao Gong at that time and Gao Pragmatism now? This idea is somewhat naive.
The imperial court's land tax was divided between the central government and local governments, and the proportions of each place were different. For example, Suzhou was always heavily taxed by the court, and the proportion of central government debt was particularly high.
Moreover, as mentioned before, Zhu Yuanzhang's small-farmer consciousness led to the Ming court's lack of central financial control capabilities from the beginning. Local accounts seriously lacked the means of transfer payments of later generations. It was retained for the local government first, and the remaining part was transferred to the central government. Since the central government has always been out of money, it is impossible to use taxes from rich areas to subsidize the development of poor areas, resulting in the rich becoming rich and the poor becoming poor.
Under this backward and outdated financial system, coupled with the great autonomy of local government offices under the Ming Dynasty, many localities would list a lot of items that they needed to spend and report them to the central government, and then "retain" a large number of things to themselves ”, and the money finally sent to the central government was treated like it was sent to a beggar.
Gao Pragmatic has always believed that before communication methods have reached the electronic instant messaging era, it is best for the court's management system not to be too complicated, especially not to have one place and one policy. This thing can only be played by later generations, and the Ming Dynasty cannot play it at all. . In later generations, it was called adapting measures to local conditions and advanced management; in the Ming Dynasty, it was called ambitious and wrangling management.
Gao Situ made it clear in the reform of the post station that management rights must be unified first, and the delivery station should be changed to look like the Shui Ma Post and the express delivery shop, and then the three carriages should be merged and managed. Only in this way can we reduce unnecessary organizations and levels, avoid having to issue multiple orders, and if something goes wrong, we can't even find the responsible person, and it's all a mess.
But words are easy to say, but things are difficult to do. First of all, the first obstacle is not small: except for some criminals, most of the personnel at the delivery station come from various police stations. You, Gao Situ, want to unify the jurisdiction. Can this jurisdiction still belong to your household department?
Oh, the financial power belongs to you, but you still want to take the military power? Do you want the dragon chair in Huangji Palace?
Fortunately, Gao Panggong obviously understands this truth, so what he proposed is that the Ministry of War should deepen the management of the post station system to ensure that the driving department can manage the entire post station system in an integrated manner. In other words, the powers of driver’s license plates are to be increased, and officials are expected to be increased as well.
Everyone thinks this deal is feasible: adding a few more officials to the Driving Department will reduce a large number of subordinate organizations. It is a good deal from a financial point of view, and it is even more cost-effective from the perspective of future employment opportunities for scholars.
But Gao Pragmatic said again that the expansion of the power of the Ministry of War Vehicles and Driving Department, and sole control of the huge reformed post system is contrary to the original intention of the ancestral system, which is to contain and supervise each other! Therefore, Gao Situ suggested that for the time being, it should still be supervised by personnel from the Ministry of Household Affairs like Shuimayi. After the reform is basically completed in the future, the court will launch a new organizational structure according to the situation.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic has already begun to play a big game here. This big game is simply that the "increasing ministries" six-department system can no longer keep up with the times, and the reformed Ming Dynasty needs more ministries.
The post station is the postal department that will be established in the future in the high pragmatic plan. However, this must be done slowly, and the foundation must be laid first, so that further suggestions can be made in the future.
Now, what Gao Pangshi put forward is called "Da Ming United Station", which is a three-section joint station system that integrates personnel movement, letter delivery and cargo transportation.
Wang Xijue had to sigh with emotion for Gao's pragmatic means and courage, as well as his magnanimity and character. In order to actually solve the court's problems, he was really able to give up the interests that he had already acquired and almost had a monopoly on without hesitation, and he did not go it alone in the process of "innovation". He really considered long-term peace and stability.
Mr. Wangge sighed quietly and murmured in a heavy tone: "Xi Fei is the same Taoist, Xi Fei is the same Taoist..."
Shen Shixing glanced at him and hesitated to speak. After a long time, he finally just sighed.
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Zhao Pig", "Dr. Xu Jiahui", and "All the Way Sex Friends" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
ps: The nucleic acid test is negative and I will return to Changsha tomorrow.
