In fact, if you look at Gao Pragmatic's busy life in the past thirty years, you will find that the things he has done since coming to Ming Dynasty seem to be many and complicated, but in the final analysis, what is the most important thing?
It is not about strengthening the army and expanding borders, it is not about scientific inventions, it is not about promoting industry and commerce, it is not about introducing Western learning, it is not about the reform of the imperial examination that has not been implemented until now, etc., but it is financial reform.
Military is the continuation of politics, and politics is the continuation of economy. Therefore, the root cause of all problems is economic problems. What this Ming Dynasty, which is dilapidated and leaky and has serious congenital defects, lacks most is a systematic economic reform.
Economic reform cannot wait for bottom-up changes, otherwise it will be accompanied by political turmoil, followed by military turmoil, which will eventually destroy the entire dynasty and cause a complete reshuffle. However, even so, this turmoil caused by economic problems may not lead to a new production relationship that is suitable for the productivity of the time - that is, a new economic system.
On the contrary, it is more likely that the result of this turmoil is to destroy the original groups that have enjoyed too many privileged benefits and then replace them with a new batch of privileged groups.
The alternation of Qingming and Mingming is essentially nothing more than this.
Therefore, bottom-up economic reform is out of the question. Gao Pingyi still wants to achieve his goals while insisting on not letting Chinese civilization bleed out. The only way is to lead a top-down economic reform.
The scope of economic reform is larger than fiscal reform. It includes at least two parts, the official and the private sector, while fiscal reform is basically limited to the official. However, fiscal reform is a prerequisite for economic reform. After all, if the central finance is so poor that it can starve to death, then any economic reform can only be thought of. It is completely a mirror and is out of reach. .
Looking at the efforts Gao Pragmatic has spent on fiscal reform over the years, we know that his policy is to take each step step by step, and then plan the next step.
Why do you have to do this? Because the Ming Dynasty was so rotten in all aspects, it was like a patient who had been ill for a long time and was no longer able to be replenished. At this time, you give him a dose of powerful medicine that seems to be completely symptomatic, but his broken body cannot bear it at all. The result will be that the virus in the body is dead or not, but the person will definitely die instantly.
At this point, there is an example that Gao Pragmatism has always been very wary of, and that is the story of Russia’s implementation of shock therapy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which actually put itself in shock—and since then, Russia’s economy has actually never climbed. Instead, it has fallen completely into deep energy dependence, the economic structure is abnormally deformed, and there is almost no hope for the future.
From Gao Pragmatic's point of view, the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty was actually far worse than that of Russia after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After all, Russia had a big killer in its hands. No matter how much others coveted it, they only dared to knock people's bones and absorb their marrow at the economic level, but they absolutely did not dare to directly Use the knife to drive it to death.
However, the Ming Dynasty did not have such a large-scale killing weapon, and it did not have a deterrent force that could ensure that it would perish together with its enemies. Therefore, in the original history, once the internal contradictions of the Ming Dynasty were stimulated under the pressure of external contradictions, it would eventually lead to the country's demise. The internal conflicts after the country's subjugation still could not be resolved, so external enemies took the opportunity to eat its last remains.
This is why the initial direction of highly pragmatic fiscal reform is to lift the maritime embargo and privatize military industry.
There is no big killer weapon. That is a limitation of this era. There is no way to solve it. However, we can first improve our military strength to ensure that external threats are reduced to a minimum. Under this premise, internal reforms can begin.
However, Gao Pragmatic was still very cautious. He first chose a project that although important did not seem to be too eye-catching, and thus "He Yi Road Shu" was created.
Through the reform of post roads, the Ming Dynasty lost a huge financial burden, saving hundreds of thousands of taels every year, and also allowed the post stations to in turn contribute to the finances. Although the absolute amount of this feedback is not large, after each advance and retreat, the difference is nearly 700,000 taels, which can be said to be a small supplement at least.
With the opening of the sea, the national treasury is getting richer, and the revenue it brings to the finance has ranged from hundreds of thousands of taels to millions of taels. Now the revenue from customs and land exports has basically reached about 8 million taels per year, becoming the key to the Ming Dynasty. One of the financial pillars.
The private military industry has not only solved a lot of unnecessary waste of raw materials and redundant personnel expenses, but also made the military equipment look brand new after twenty years, and even continues to improve its advanced nature. In total, it will save at least one million taels a year. , some war preparation periods can even exceed two million taels.
Coupled with the reform of post roads, these three "offensive and defensive changes" alone increased the Ming Dynasty's finances by tens of millions of taels in annual revenue.
After that, Gao's pragmatic status had been stabilized. Therefore, as the emperor's needs coincided with his purpose, the opening of vassal ban became the next reform project to be promoted.
Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to his relatives, and the hereditary title system he formulated made sufficient plans for his descendants. Even for descendants like Liu Bei who could not be defeated by Prince Jing of Zhongshan for who knows how many generations, Zhu Yuanzhang reserved a title and prepared a corresponding salary.
However, what Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect was that after more than ten generations, his descendants had multiplied to more than hundreds of thousands. When the princes of the Ming Dynasty grew up, they could not stay in the capital and had to be enfeoffed. Every time a vassal was established, the best farmland in the enfeoffment would be taken away, which further intensified land annexation.
After more than ten generations of this, the best fields in the country have all become Huangzhuang and Wangzhuang. For example, during the Chongzhen period in original history, one-half of Henan and one-quarter of Shanxi's land were all owned by the clan.
How can ordinary people live like this? If ordinary people have no way to survive, how can they afford to pay taxes? The most ridiculous thing is that none of the clan’s land is taxed!
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty's finances had to distribute large amounts of salary to these clans. Taking the middle of the Jiajing period as an example, the annual rice supply to the capital in the country totaled 4 million shi, while the amount of rice provided to the descendants of the vassal government was 8.53 million shi, more than twice that. In Shanxi Province, the rice and wheat reserves were only 1.52 million shi, and the clan's Lumi requires 3.12 million shi; Henan Province has 843,000 shi of rice and wheat, but the clan's lumi requires 1.92 million shi.
The Ming Dynasty's finances were largely dragged down by the hundreds of thousands of clans who relied entirely on the state to support them. Although the "feudal aristocrats" represented by clans and noble groups were weakened at this time, their tax-free privileges were not lost. At the same time, they in turn devoured the Ming Dynasty's finances.
The most embarrassing thing is that due to the impact of the Jingnan Campaign, although the Ming royal family controlled the most land and wealth in the country and ate up most of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue, except for the emperor's own internal funds, the wealth of other royal families could not be used. In order to finance financial and military expenses, the children of the royal family cannot join the army and fight.
But at the same time, a large number of low-level clans were in dire straits because of the imperial government's financial difficulties. Zonglu was often in arrears for a long time, and the ancestral system did not allow them to do other things, leading to difficulties in life. Many of them even had no choice but to deliberately violate the regulations in order to get a chance to go to Fengyang's "IVP Prison for Clan" to serve jail time. This was full of ridicule from both sides.
Therefore, Gao pragmatically introduced a series of reform measures to open up vassals and bans. The measures have been mentioned previously and will not be repeated here. In short, in the end, not only he got rid of a big burden, but also "liberated" a large number of low-level clans, allowing them to serve in the imperial court. Start a new life with partial support.
Although in the first few years, the court spent more money than it saved (Note: Refer to the previous article, it is equivalent to a "clan buyout" system, so it was very expensive at the beginning.), but after a few years the court It is much easier, and the annual direct expenditure is reduced by about 1.5 million taels.
Some people may ask, why is there a shortage of 1.5 million taels? Doesn't this compare with the previous expenses of the clan?
There are two reasons: First, during the Wanli Dynasty, the amount of money that had to be spent on the clan in theory was as high as about 12.56 million taels per year, but in fact this money could not be spent at all. Therefore, citing old rules, it would naturally be significantly reduced. A very small part is emitted, at least one-tenth of the amount is emitted.
Secondly, the establishment of the vassal ban does not mean that all clans will be ignored. At least those princes, princes and their children must continue to be supported, but high pragmatism has limited the upper limit of financial support.
By adding and subtracting the two, the final direct expenditure saved each year is more than 1.5 million taels.
Oh, by the way, here's a brief aside: According to Wei Yuan's "Shengwu Ji", the amount of money spent on royal family salaries in the early years of the Qing Dynasty was as high as about six million taels, and the land occupied by the royal family of the Tatar Qing Dynasty - most of which was forcibly occupied - —The area is also huge.
Scholars in later generations have made special calculations, and the basic conclusion is that the Tatar Qing clan embezzled as much as 25.08 million taels of silver every year from the Tongzhi period. Even if only half of it is taken, the Tatar Qing's oppression is eight times that of the Ming Dynasty. Even if there was a difference in the length of rule between the two dynasties, taking into account the effects of high-yield crops in the Americas, the Qing Dynasty was actually far more cruel to the people than the Ming Dynasty.
I'm going too far, but let's get back to it. Even if Gao Pragmatic has made reforms to the above-mentioned problems, the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty have not been completely solved here, because there is another more difficult target to deal with, and that is the civil servant group. To a certain extent, the civil servant group and the forces behind it may be called the "final boss" on the road to fiscal reform.
As we all know, although the "emerging bourgeoisie" represented by civil servants and literati cannot be completely legally exempt from tax, they can achieve de facto tax exemption through tax evasion, and can in turn exploit and squeeze civilians by assisting the court in collecting taxes, or In turn, they assisted civilians to evade taxes and defraud Ming Dynasty's finances.
If the clan is a cancer of the Ming Dynasty's finances, then today's civil servant group and the interest groups behind it may even be regarded as a cancer of the Ming Dynasty.
Too many vested interests have bankrupted the common people who originally bear most of the taxes, and caused the national fiscal expenditure to increase indefinitely. In the original history, why did the Ming Dynasty's finances become extremely difficult during the Chongzhen period? In addition to the difficulty of returning, Chongzhen's own independent style is also an important reason.
Chongzhen's willful behavior made no force in the ruling class willing to contribute to tax collection. Originally, the emperor's internal funds were managed by eunuchs, and Taicang in the outer court was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. But now the eunuchs are restricted by the emperor, and the outer court is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. He was killed by the emperor. Then, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty will naturally be exhausted, and then the Ming Dynasty itself will naturally be exhausted.
Just imagine, after the capital was captured by Li Zicheng, more than 70 million taels of silver were copied. Even if one-tenth of this money could have been used for the court's finances, could the Ming Dynasty be finished so quickly?
The 7 million taels at that time, let alone Hong Chengchou who was still working for the Ming Dynasty in the early days, or Sun Chuanting who eventually died in the battle, even if you gave it to someone like Zuo Liangyu, he would be able to attack Li Zicheng The fight lasted for a while.
Therefore, although there are many reasons for Ming's death, the most fundamental and critical cause of death is one: failure to collect taxes.
However, the problem of not being able to collect taxes is actually not unique to the Ming Dynasty, but is common in human history and human society even if it develops into modern times.
According to the previous article, it can be explained that the root cause of the fiscal bankruptcy of the DPRK was that with the expansion of population and annexation of land in a long-term peaceful environment, the civilians at the bottom went bankrupt in large numbers and were unable to pay taxes. At the same time, the proliferation of the rentier class in the upper class made the country's economy and Finances are overwhelmed. But not only the Ming Dynasty, almost all the feudal dynasties that ruled China for a long time experienced the dilemma of not being able to collect taxes.
The result of the failure to collect taxes in the late Western Han Dynasty was that Wang Mang launched the Wang Mang restructuring aimed at equalizing land rights, liberating slaves, and issuing more currency; the result of the failure to collect taxes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was that a large number of officials were sold and the state power was handed over to substitutes. The Eastern Han Dynasty eliminated the new warlords of the Yellow Turban Army; as a result of the uncollected taxes at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the recovery of Chang'an relied on returning mercenaries, and in return they were allowed to return to plunder Chang'an. At the same time, the Tang Dynasty began to control the feudal towns in various places. Separatism is powerless.
In the early days of the Qing Dynasty, just like the Ming Dynasty, they relied on "military households" who were legally exempt from tax to suppress "civilian households" who were not legally exempt from tax. However, the legal and tax-free "military households" in the Ming Dynasty were the Jinyiwei and the military meritorious noble groups behind the Jinyiwei, as well as the military heads of various military stations affiliated to their names; the legal and tax-free "military households" in the Tatar Qing Dynasty were the Eight Banners Group and the Han nationality Warlords; as for the gentry in the Ming and Qing dynasties, they were nominally "private households" that were not exempt from tax.
Yongzheng's plan to "pay grain to the gentry as one body" was based on the support of the Eight Banners military group. This was essentially the same as the Wanli Emperor in the original history who relied on eunuchs and royal guards to collect commercial and mineral taxes from the gentry. Behind the eunuchs is the imperial power, and behind the imperial guards are the nobles - the Ming version of the "Eight Banners" group.
And like the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty later decayed, and the Qing Dynasty also experienced a transition from being able to receive taxes to not being able to collect taxes. Even though Yongzheng killed many people and finally came up with the idea of "officials and gentry paying taxes together", by the Qianlong period, taxes could no longer be collected.
Qianlong gradually destroyed the family fortune left by Yongzheng, and Jiaqing subsidized part of the financial income by copying Heshen's house. However, when Daoguang came to power, the financial difficulties were such that he began to patch the dragon's robe - although this move was symbolic. , but forcing him to do this kind of performance art itself also illustrates the financial difficulties at that time.
Not only China, but also Western countries that have always represented the so-called "advanced system" in modern times have experienced financial difficulties, and this kind of difficulty is also the direct cause of the Western bourgeois revolution.
Most of the final solutions for Western countries to solve their financial problems were not to force the rich in their own countries to pay more taxes, but to solve their own financial difficulties through foreign military aggression and colonial expansion, and by expanding the objects of exploitation.
Because of this source, future generations will see some "surprising" and "strange things": when the European colonial system collapsed, Europe's military power also declined rapidly.
Before the high-pragmatism transition, as the U.S. economic development gradually stagnated, its annual fiscal deficit accounted for 80% of the fiscal deficit of all developed countries, and the debt balance was equivalent to about 100% of the gross domestic product. Vandenberg, a professor at the University of Charleston in that country, even said: "The U.S. finance has embarked on a path of no return."
Corresponding to the financial difficulties, the United States' military strength is also shrinking and it has begun to withdraw troops from the Middle East and Afghanistan. In other words, the world's first empire, which is not as long as the Ming Dynasty, is already facing financial difficulties and military contraction like the Ming Dynasty.
It seems that two hypotheses can be drawn at this time: First, if the United States cannot rely on debt to alleviate its financial problems like the Ming Dynasty, then the "Jiashen National Disaster" may have already broken out;
Secondly, if the Ming Dynasty can borrow money from the whole world like the United States (harvest of financial hegemony), it may be able to survive for a long time!
Compared with ancient China, modern China and Western countries have more national debt as a supplement to tax revenue to alleviate fiscal crises.
Anyone who has studied the laws of fiscal crises will find that fiscal crises are directly related to economic crises: if the economy does not develop well and a large number of "middle class" bankrupts, tax revenue will naturally decrease, and fiscal crises will naturally occur; if the economy develops well, If the "middle class" increases significantly, tax revenue will naturally increase and fiscal revenue will naturally be abundant.
Therefore, the current financial problem of the Ming Dynasty is ultimately that the number of people who can pay taxes and are willing to pay taxes continues to decrease, while the number of people who can avoid taxes and be exempted from taxes continues to expand.
Therefore, in order to solve the financial problem, there are actually only two ideas: either make people who are willing to pay taxes become rich, or make wealthy people become willing to pay taxes. Of course, it’s best to do both – I want them all!
But having said that, "wanting them all" is difficult after all. For example, the former, in the final analysis, is to increase the national income, which is extremely difficult in the agricultural era. Because the productivity lies here, you cannot achieve "extremely abundant material output", and imperial feudal countries obviously do not have the social and ideological foundation to carry out comprehensive poverty alleviation projects.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic can only consider the second option, which is to make wealthy people willing to pay taxes.
However, rich people often also have power, or can achieve power that serves them by spending relatively little money, thereby avoiding losing more money through paying taxes. At this time, Gao Pragmatic must prepare two methods.
As mentioned just now, the fundamental reason why Yongzheng was able to implement "the gentry receiving food from one body" was the support of the Eight Banners military group. In the same way, if Gao Pragmatic wanted to successfully promote similar reforms, he must also have the support of the military power of the Ming Dynasty.
Is this just a slippery slope and some things have become traceable? Yes, what did Gao Pragmatic do for so many years of conquering the south and the north and the west and the east?
Is it just to eliminate the border dangers of the Ming Dynasty? Is it just to establish personal unparalleled military exploits? Not really.
What Gao pragmatic wants to gain is his unparalleled prestige in the Ming Dynasty's military system, the great recognition of him from top to bottom by the Ming Dynasty's military system, and even the recognition of him by the actual controllers of the main military forces in the major "military regions" His personality worship - to the point where whenever he gives instructions that are pragmatic and pragmatic, they will subconsciously follow them and implement them immediately!
In other words, although Gao Pragmatic has no intention of changing the dynasty, he still wants to have the same huge reputation as Sima Yi during the Gao Pingling Incident, so that those who support him dare to support him and those who oppose him at all costs You must be careful with your words and actions and don’t dare to express your feelings!
Only with such support can Gao Pragmatic dare to take a clear stand and go to the civil service group and the interest groups behind it to ask for the redistribution of interests, so that they have to transfer some of their interests to the national finance and maintain the government. The country is functioning well.
After nearly thirty years of planning and nearly twenty years of fighting, Gao Pragmatic finally has such confidence.
Jiubian, the area where the Ming Dynasty's military power is most concentrated, more than half of the power is directly in the hands of Gao Pragmatic's various old subordinates, and the rest all maintain great respect for him.
In the capital, in addition to the Jinyiwei and Jingjun who are responsible for the security of the palace but have little actual combat capabilities, the central force directly responsible for "shocking the world" is the Imperial Guard. The former commander Qi Jiguang and the current commander Ma Gui, who is not regarded as his superior? Pragmatically “private”?
Under such conditions, whatever Gao Jingshi wants to do, there is only one person in the world who can stop him, and that is the King of ZTE in the world today - Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun.
But... Zhu Yijun would never stop him, because Zhu Yijun knew very well how difficult the imperial government's finances were back then, and he probably wanted to see the imperial court's finances completely get rid of that predicament more than Gao Pragmatic did.
Collect taxes from wealthy businessmen, collect taxes from the gentry, collect taxes from those civil servants who clamor all day long for having a clean life but having thousands of acres of fertile land at home... How could Zhu Yijun not want to!
So at this moment, the knife was already in Gao Pragmatic's hand, and it was a sword that had been carefully forged for twenty years. No one would doubt its sharpness.
There is clear evidence for this: Qi Jiguang only led half of the Imperial Guards to move south in the first two years. The army had not yet reached Yangzhou. The Jiangnan Cao Army was rumored to be in turmoil, and no one dared to fight with it!
Although Qi Jiguang has retired and is retiring in Beijing as Ning Haibo, he is still there, and Ma Gui, who succeeded him, is now equally brilliant in battle, and the power of the Imperial Guard is as strong as ever. Who dares to say a word to the emperor or Gao Pragmatic at this time: " Your sword is sharp, but my sword is not bad at all!"
No one dares. This is when the time has come.
Of course, like Gao Pangshi's secret instructions to Liu Wei, he also adheres to the same attitude on the issue of expanding the scope of taxation: holding a big stick in hand, speaking softly, and trying to avoid using violence, but to strive for as much as possible A compromise is reached in a tacit understanding.
In this case, some political means should be used, such as differentiation and disintegration.
It is true that the civil servant group and the interest groups behind it are deeply connected, and the relationship between the two parties is complicated. However, no matter what, since you have a knife in your hand, there must still be gaps to follow. As long as the operator has the superb skills of a cook and a ox, he can still cut in many places.
For example, the method Gao Pragmatic proposed this time: Let wealthy businessmen, gentry and celebrities spend money to buy this "third-class foreign title" is actually the first step in taxing the civil servant group and the interest groups behind it.
To defeat a tight line of defense, the most difficult thing is often to find the first breakthrough point. And as long as you find this point, it is like finding the right place to cut the knife when cutting the cow. After the knife is cut, it can follow the grain like a bamboo.
Gao pragmatism seems to be just for the idea that some rich people are willing to spend money to buy a social status, so that they can legally improve their qualifications. This does not infringe the interests of other people - except for those who obtain status through the imperial examination. Civil servant.
However, at the same time, Gao Pragmatic also provided a certain degree of "rebate" to these civil servants, allowing them to obtain good benefits in the process.
So it seems that the three parties of the court, civil servants, and wealthy people have achieved a win-win situation to some extent. However, in fact, through this incident, Gao Pragmatism cut a wedge between the civil servants and the wealthy private people - the people who originally stood behind the civil servant group.
When the first cut was made, the civil servants and wealthy people could not really feel the power of this knife, let alone realize that this knife was actually a sharp weapon that could threaten their life or death at any time.
When Gao Qingshi's knife is successfully completed and starts to push forward, they will feel the pain, but at that time they will also find that they are unable to resist. At the same time, the connection between them has been cut in half by Gao pragmatism, and the two sides can never return to the close relationship they once had.
"Since you all have no objections to this, tomorrow the Japanese Cabinet will personally inform you and formally recommend its implementation to the emperor." Gao pragmatically smiled gently and said contagiously and seductively: "Once the emperor accepts this policy, not only will it be implemented It will be of great benefit to the government's finances, and it will also be of great benefit to improving the poverty of the Ming Dynasty's civil and military officials for two hundred years. It is a good deed both for public and private purposes. Therefore, I hope you will publicize it widely and strive to do this good deed as soon as possible. Implement it.”
"Don't worry, Mr. Ge. This is the best of both worlds. How can I be willing to follow others?"
"The elder is so benevolent and righteous! Although my generation of scholars are poor, as the elder said, many of my colleagues were extremely difficult after taking office, and they couldn't even recruit a few staff. Is it true that government affairs were delayed in vain? Now we have 30% of them. If it is beneficial, it will definitely not cause any trouble. It is indeed a good deed in the world!
I won’t say much else. Later, I will inform my friends in Beijing immediately and let everyone publicize the benefits of this policy. Tomorrow, we will go to Shu together to cheer for Mr. Ge, and we will definitely not miss Mr. Ge’s important event! "
"Yes, yes, Zhou Zhenglang (Note: Zhenglang, the common name for a doctor) has said a great thing. This move of the pavilion elder is really like the rain of nectar for all officials in the world. Although the officials and others are soft-spoken, they are not to be left behind. Tomorrow, I will be attached to the pavilion. Lao Jiwei, let’s take part in this grand event together!”
“Let’s celebrate together!”
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the large meeting hall of the Ministry of Revenue.
The senior officials in the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of War, and Ministry of Industry just paid it back. Most of them were not short of these three melons and two dates, but it was quite different for the doctor, Yuanwailang, and chief officials. They all cheered and shouted. Shocking.
If it weren't for his high pragmatic prestige, and no one would dare to act recklessly in front of him, looking at their appearance now, I'm afraid they would all be eager to rush forward and kowtow to him first.
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "book friend 20220326132952039" for their reward support, thank you!
Thanks to the book friend "Haha, the monster is coming" for supporting me with 10 monthly tickets, thank you!
ps: Today is the weekend, so I went home a little early on purpose, so this chapter is 7k+, 4k is considered a normal update, and the extra 3k is a thank you to Silver Alliance for the additional update, because the main text of this chapter ends here, so I don’t deliberately add 8k.
In addition, I don’t seem to be sleepy at the moment, and I will continue coding later to see if I can update again before morning. However, you have also seen recently that when it is too late, it is easy for me to fall asleep while writing, so I can't guarantee that I will fight for it.
