Chapter 83: Financial Problems of Ming Dynasty
There is a gap between the government and the people.
There are more than 10,000 officials in the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty had the largest number of people, some people speculated that there were as many as four to five billion people. How could such a small number of officials manage so many people. Even Ming officials expanded a hundred times. It may not be possible to control everyone.
Officials must not expand. Because if it expands, Ming Dynasty’s poor financial system will not be able to support it at all.
This becomes a problem. There is a layer of agents between the government and the people.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw too many things about corrupt officials harming the people in the Yuan Dynasty, and felt that he needed to limit the power of officials. Let them not prey on the common people. So the grain chief system came into being.
The essence of the grain chief system is to select the virtuous among the common people. Manage some affairs on behalf of the government. Zhu Yuanzhang regarded the grain chief as the representative of the people, and even escorted the grain chief to Beijing every year. Zhu Yuanzhang would select some to receive in person and ask about people's lives.
Even meet talented people among them. Also transferred to the government. There was even a person who jumped to the position of Minister of Household Affairs.
But is this system really good?
In other words, there are certainly many bad things about Ming officials. Although there are only a few people who are as corrupt as Guo Huan. But many officials may not be innocent. But are these grain chiefs good people?
Let me just say one thing: many people who are grain managers never encounter any misfortunes. They all became wealthy families. A tyrannical family in the countryside.
Even in the late Ming Dynasty, many things could not be implemented without local government consultation with large private households. Maybe there is no such origin.
It is difficult to say whether Zhu Yuanzhang's idea is correct or not. After all, even later generations of governments would find it difficult to maintain rural governance. Even after 2000, many rural governments were withdrawing. Some powerful civil figures have replaced previous government functions with churches everywhere.
This is also based on cost considerations.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very sentimental about the grain chief system. In fact, the implementation of the grain chief system during the Zhu Yuanzhang era was not too wrong. Hearing what He Xi said about the problem of the grain chief system, he had some opinions in his heart, but did not express them. He said, "Let's talk about the key points."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, I have already seen that the Ming Dynasty's finances are in extreme chaos. The central government's balance is too small. Local finances are not much, and the rules are too rigid. It is not conducive to local development. I believe that a three-level financial system should be established. At the county level, Provincial level, and the central three-level finance. Provide for interception at all levels, separate central taxation and local taxation. Gather the wealth of the world in the center. Then distribute it."
"As for the transshipment and allocation of some grains, the movement of civilians was changed to the movement of officials. This was also the reform of the Qing court in later generations."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Do you know how much food transportation consumes?"
"In terms of a hundred miles, it will probably consume 10% or 20%. In terms of a thousand miles, it will probably cost one catty to transport one catty. This is not even a difficult and dangerous place. If it is thousands of miles away, it will cost several times to transport one catty. .”
"The Ming Dynasty's taxation is food."
"If you follow your method, after a lot of trouble, you will have to collect more than three times the tax to supply consumption."
"The people can't afford it."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, this is wrong. Since transporting food is so hard, then after your Majesty turns to people's transport, will this consumption disappear? No, your Majesty can't see it. With the transportation routes drawn by your Majesty, , in total, it is certainly better than the food being transferred to the central center, and then being dispatched by the central center. But your majesty does not know that the consumption of centralized transportation and centralized storage is much smaller than the consumption of scattered transportation by the people."
"Whether the consumption is large or small? It's hard to say."
"And there is no need to transport all the grain to central storage. Warehousing can be set up in key places. It can be directly managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, or more can be intercepted in remote provinces. Less food can be transported to Beijing. More importantly, it can be discounted. Your Majesty has also read history. In fact, Zhang Juzheng’s reform was actually a change in grain discounting.”
"There's always a way."
"The biggest problem with His Majesty's fiscal policy is that the court has no way to change it. Because one move affects the whole body. Only Your Majesty can change the whole. And it is the local officials and even the people who find the problem. It is difficult for the people to change the most Things from the lower levels are fed back to the central government. Therefore, over time, even if the people sell their children and daughters because of the hardships of transportation, the higher ups will not know."
Many of Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas were very advanced.
The Ming Dynasty's finances were in chaos like a spider web. It is even detailed that the food in a certain township must be transported to a certain military camp. Generally speaking, the transit time for grains does not exceed 200 miles. For the sake of the people.
Looks good. But it's hard to adjust.
After all, after the Jingnan incident, the Beijing camp was transferred to Beijing. Many Beijing-based health centers in Nanjing also moved to Beijing. Previously, some people in Nanjing transported grain to the barracks in Beijing, which was only a hundred or two hundred miles away. That's just a few days. Not difficult.
But when the Beijing camp arrives in Beijing, the people in these places have to be transported to Beijing. That's more than two thousand miles.
It can be said that the travel expenses are several times that of that little food.
This problem was not solved later.
Why not follow this principle and transport the counties near Beijing to the Beijing camp?
The problem is that each of these counties has its own problems. The food in this county is supplied to the border, and the food in this county is supplied to the palace. etc. If there is any movement here, the food at the border will have to be rearranged. Arranging food at the border requires more mobilization.
Basically, if you move one place, many places will be involved. And these are all benefits.
As long as you make a move, someone will gain and someone will lose. When it comes to issues of interest, everyone will fight for it.
Finally, it was discovered that solving the problems in these counties near Nanjing would require local governments to pay a price. Who would? No one wants to?
Therefore, unless the emperor personally intervenes. Otherwise this matter cannot be done.
In fact, from a conceptual point of view. Although Zhu Yuanzhang's fiscal policy has certain problems, it cannot be said that it is not a solution. But the problem is that the fault tolerance rate is too low and almost impossible to modify. It's both rigid and dogmatic, and wasteful.
Yes. Zhu Yuanzhang worked day and night to deal with government affairs and these details. Also very concerned. But what will happen in the future?
Many times Ming officials used the ancestral system as an excuse, but there was nothing they could do. Take the financial system as an example. After the financial system of the Ming Dynasty completely collapsed, the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty ended with the Ming court.
Until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to say that a complete financial system was established.
During the Kangxi period, the three feudal lords were in rebellion. As the source of finance, the entire south was caught in the flames of war, but how did the Kangxi court continue the war?
It was because at that time, the Minister of Household Affairs abolished the Zhu Yuanzhang model in the Ming Dynasty, and instead ordered all local taxes to be transferred to the Ministry, and all expenditure and cashier rights were vested in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Although such extreme suppression of local finance will have great disadvantages. But it took Kangxi to prepare enough military expenditures. As a result, the finances of the Qing Dynasty and the finances of the Ming Dynasty went in two directions.
The Qing Dynasty's finances had always been more than 30 million taels, a figure that the Ming Emperor could not even imagine. Although taxes in the Qing Dynasty were heavier than those in the Ming Dynasty, the price of silver was also lower. But the Ming Dynasty's finances should not be exhausted to millions of taels, which would be a problem.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time. He Xi's words hit him hard.
Zhu Yuanzhang's financial principles. It was never that the imperial court had excessive taxes, but that it deliberately compressed all aspects of finance. Maintaining a government with low consumption. Thus giving low taxes to the people. This is also Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang himself had personal pains about excessive taxation and extortion.
It’s just that Zhu Yuanzhang never expected it. He painstakingly created this financial system, which was so unbearable in He Xi's eyes.
In fact, there is nothing strange about He Xi's three-level financial system. This was mostly done in the Tang and Song dynasties before. However, it may not be level three. They are all collected layer by layer, and then removed layer by layer.
But Zhu Yuanzhang knew better than He Xi that every time a bureaucracy passes through another hand, there will be a layer of waste. This kind of money is collected from the local government and then allocated from the central government. The waste is staggering.
The geese are over-plucked. It's no lie.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not looking for trouble on his own and wanted to create a financial system by himself. It's targeted.
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang had no reaction, He Xi became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke. After all, in He Xi's view, the Ming Dynasty was okay in other aspects. Although the guard system was stretched, it was functional. Needless to say, the civil service system was almost completely adopted by the Qing Dynasty. It proved to be quite successful. Only the finance of the Ming Dynasty, if I don’t say much about it, I will shed tears if I talk about it too much.
He Xi continued: "There is another major problem in the Ming Dynasty's finances, and that is the issue of treasure banknotes. Your Majesty, how many taels of treasure banknotes are equal to one tael of silver now? Do you know?"
"Anyway, I don't know. I found in Hangzhou that the ratio of Hangzhou banknotes is different from the ratio of Nanjing banknotes. Generally speaking, Nanjing banknotes are the least valuable, and the more remote they are, the more expensive they become."
"On the one hand, things are rare and valuable. There are too many treasures in Nanjing, but there are few in remote places."
"On the other hand, people in Nanjing no longer believe in Baobao. People in remote areas have not seen it very often, and they still believe in the imperial court. But in the future, it is estimated that even remote places will not believe in Baobao."
"I estimate that in the next few years, the price of precious notes compared with silver will probably fall below one hundred to two hundred."
Zhu Yuanzhang shouted: "Do they dare?"
He Xi said: "This is not a question of whether you dare or not. It is a matter of economic operation. Regardless of the individual interests of many people, the court can force one person or two to suffer losses. But it cannot force everyone in the world to suffer losses."
"Your Majesty, that's not how the banknotes are printed. Why didn't Your Majesty learn the method of the Southern Song Dynasty's banknotes? Instead, why did he learn the method of the Yuan Dynasty's banknotes?"
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed after a long time and said: "Why don't I know what you are talking about? But in the world, how many people are proficient in the method of treasure money? I just think that if I don't use this thing, it won't hurt the people, and the national treasury will be self-sufficient."
He Xi was stunned and sighed in his heart. Zhu Yuanzhang's economic attainments were far inferior to his political and military achievements.
