Chapter 70 The Impact of Corvee Service
Zhu Yuanzhang's heart moved after hearing this.
Zhu Yuanzhang has heard a lot about the benefits of iron becoming a cabbage price. He longed for this too. But this requires Zhu Yuanzhang to spend so much money now, and Zhu Yuanzhang is reluctant to part with it.
Because iron became cheaper, it did not bring direct benefits to the Ming court.
Nowadays, the major consumers of iron in the Ming Dynasty are the imperial court. For ordinary people, iron consumption is very small. Unless iron is cheap enough to replace wood. In the final analysis, it is difficult for heavy industry projects to bring immediate changes to the national economy and people's livelihood. Instead, they bring burdens.
This is the situation today.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew the benefits of cheap iron, but it was just to support the construction of other aspects of the court. But the problem is that the various departments in the imperial court do not collect money. Construction funds cannot be withdrawn directly. Not to mention, maintaining the Taiping Iron Works after completion will also require a lot of money.
The court's expenses cannot be sustained.
In fact, when the imperial court could not support its expenditure, Zhu Yuanzhang had a method, which was to issue treasure banknotes.
When Zhu Yuanzhang first issued treasure banknotes, the ratio between treasure banknotes and copper coins was still 80% to 90%. Now it has fallen too much. But at least there is a stable price and there are still people using it in the market. By the Yongle period, it had become a real piece of waste paper.
After Zhu Yuanzhang received some education in modern finance, he no longer dared to issue treasure banknotes within this year. Even a little repurchase in some places.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to buy back more treasure notes and raise the price of treasure notes, but he needed to spend money everywhere. Zhu Yuanzhang had no extra money at all and could use it here.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang felt very uncomfortable, he still sighed and said, "He Xi, it's not that I don't want to support it, it's really that the court can't support it. You can't win this plan without a million taels."
"Let's do this. I'll allocate 200,000 taels from my internal treasury and keep it going. Didn't your College of Engineering and Science just open? Just wait for the talent."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, didn't the Ministry of Industry say before that there is not enough iron ore. Since we have to buy iron ore, there is no place to buy it. Once the Taiping Iron Works was established, didn't it save the court's expenses?"
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said, "You don't understand the Ming Dynasty. You don't know that if iron ore is collected from below, no money will be given."
He Xi was speechless and said, "No money?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "When the imperial court needs iron ore, it will order the various defense stations to mine iron ore and transport the capital. The expenses of the imperial guards are self-sufficient. Their expenses are considered to have been paid by the imperial court. So---- --"
He Xi couldn't turn this corner for a while.
Yes, if calculated based on this, the imperial court’s expropriation of iron mines from various places would cost zero. However, He Xi's construction of the Taiping Iron Works here was extremely costly.
But when I think about it, his kind of centralized and agglomerated production. Production efficiency is greatly improved. Since production efficiency has improved, costs will inevitably decrease. Then here comes the problem. Why is it in the calculation of the Ming court? His method is not as cost-effective as the original method.
What's the problem?
A bright light flashed in He Xi's heart. Secretly said; "I understand, it's the human cost."
Yes the human cost.
In the Ming Dynasty, labor costs were almost not included in the court's expenses. Because there was a tax in the Ming Dynasty called corvee.
Corvee is both virtual and real.
It is false to say so. There is no intuitive stacking of items with this tax. You said what the corvee handed over was grain or money, it was neither food nor money, it was strength.
But among the people, it is a real thing.
Because they themselves know every bit of effort they exert. This time when the mine was being mined, not only the guards were used, but local craftsmen were also recruited. It is also reflected in the form of corvee.
But the officials of the Ming Dynasty were not the main workers, and they had no sense of production efficiency at all. All they can feel is the finished product. As a result, there is a problem. The officials of the feudal dynasty have no feelings about anything about production itself. Even as organizers of many production activities, they have no intention of improving technology or even advancing new technologies. Because the benefits of new technologies are not enjoyed by them. Is a laborer. But new technology makes things happen. It is the bureaucrats themselves who are responsible.
Therefore, as long as something can be done and it is established as a routine, it will be fine.
As for the extra labor that producers put in, it has nothing to do with them.
In an instant, what is called production relations reacts on productivity. In an instant, He Xi once again deepened his understanding.
That's why the same account resulted in different situations.
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, corvee must be abolished."
Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that He Xi would suddenly say such a sentence. I didn't know what was going on for a while. Without saying a word, He Xi told Zhu Yuanzhang what he had thought of in detail. Said: "Your Majesty, I finally found the joint. The corvee thing is basically a black hole, and everything inside is unquantifiable."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Why can't it be quantified? There are regulations on how many days each citizen will serve."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, you have always said that I don't understand the Ming Dynasty. Why are you deceiving yourself and others so much today?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Why do you say this?"
He Xi said: "How many days of service are all determined by the official's pen. How does your majesty check whether what they wrote is correct or wrong?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and suddenly speechless.
If you were an ordinary emperor, you might not know what He Xi was talking about. But Zhu Yuanzhang climbed up from the bottom and understood the virtues of bureaucrats very well. Anything that is not checked above, or cannot be found, is almost left to its own devices. Without effective supervision, it is tantamount to laissez-faire.
How to supervise corvee labor?
Check the land tax to see how much grain can be harvested. Check various taxes to see how much money can be collected. But there is no way to check the corvee thing. Maybe someone said to check the project. Do corvees always have to do things? But it’s too easy to cut corners in projects. And they can allow people to do private work for them. Convert corvée into gold and silver.
And apart from the people at the time, it would be difficult to find out.
And it’s also difficult quantitatively. Let the people do more work, and even if the people are unwilling, they will not resist. He didn't even dare to resist. It is difficult to supervise.
In fact, it is difficult to supervise anything at the bottom level. Taxation, whether it is in kind or monetary taxation, is at least something that can be seen, but with corvee, you can't see anything, and there is too much room to move your hands up and down.
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said, "This matter is of great importance. Let's let it go."
It would be wrong to say that Zhu Yuanzhang did not pay attention to corvee service. Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a lower class background, understood the harm of corvee very well. But what Zhu Yuanzhang did in his life was to be equal. The same is true for corvee service. In the system, a yellow register and a corvee register were established. Organize households and people. The number of days for people to perform corvee work every year is fixed, usually two months in every ten years. Not much to say.
But the system is a system and reality is reality.
In fact, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, only taxes were calculated. Neither is high. But including corvee labor, the people were miserable.
Didn't Zhu Yuanzhang think about abolishing corvee?
That is impossible. Because the Ming court had no money.
A large part of the operating costs of the Ming Dynasty was offset by corvee services. It can even be said that the national strength of the Central Plains dynasties of China was often reflected in the form of corvee service. Any country that achieves household registration and equalizes the people can explode with extremely powerful power. The fundamental thing is to be able to collect corvee labor. Mobilize people to do great things for free.
But this same model also has a vague sense of productivity improvement.
Because any reform cannot produce revolutionary changes all at once. They are all advanced bit by bit. But when many improvements are just beginning, it is not as convenient as recruiting one more person.
From this perspective, why did capitalism sprout in the late Ming Dynasty after Zhang Juzheng was whipped? Because of a whip method, all corvées were folded into the land tax.
However, today's remarks did not move Zhu Yuanzhang. But it also gave Zhu Yuanzhang an education on where Ming Dynasty should go in the future. There is a vague direction.
