"Sun Aiqing, you are the chief minister of the cabinet. How much land does Prince Qin's palace have?"
Sun Chengzong frowned slightly and hesitated for a moment: "Your Majesty, I thought that the Qin Palace was at least about 10,000 hectares."
After finishing speaking, he continued: "I remember that in the eighth year of Wanli, when Zhang Juzheng was clearing out all the land in the country, the land of the Prince of Qin's palace was more than 8,700 hectares. Now that so many years have passed, it must have increased a lot."
Everyone was shocked, while Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Household Affairs, nodded secretly.
"Your Majesty, the King of Qin is the first king to be enfeoffed by Taizu. It has been more than two hundred and fifty years ago. The royal family has awarded several awards, and the kings of Qin have asked for several times. In addition to the clever plundering mentioned in Master Yuan's letter, I agree with Mr. Sun Ge’s estimate.”
"When I was young, I went to Xi'an and saw the Palace of Prince Qin."
Li Banghua spoke up: "The palace has two walls. The outer wall is made of rammed earth, which is called the Xiao Wall. The inner wall is made of blue bricks, which is called the Brick City. There are nearly 900 houses of various types, and large and small towers. 46 seats.”
"The Prince of Qin's Mansion had at most 15 princes, spread across Yongxing, Bao'an, Weinan, Yichuan, Lintong and other places. If there is less land, how can we support so many princes? King Fu has 20,000 hectares, and this kind of existence has existed for 200 How can it be possible that the palace has been in the palace for so many years?"
"People's evaluation of Prince Qin's Mansion is that it is the richest in the world, with millions of supporters. Therefore, I estimate that Prince Qin's Mansion has at least 20,000 hectares."
The ministers were startled again, and they all shouted, "What a good fellow." In the blink of an eye, there were another ten thousand hectares.
The ministers discussed it for a while, and finally came to the conclusion that it was about 20,000 hectares.
"Guo Aiqing, how many acres of cultivated land are there per capita in Shaanxi?"
"Your Majesty, please forgive me, but this Ministry of Household Affairs does not have accurate statistics!"
After Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Household Affairs, saluted, he added: "However, we can make some inferences from some data.
The annual land tax in Shaanxi accounts for about 15% of the Ming Dynasty and the two-tax system. The taxable land in Shaanxi is about 430,000 hectares. Based on a population of 8 million, the average per capita is about 5 acres. This is only registered in the fish scale register. "
"Five acres?"
Chongzhen repeated softly, and then fell silent, but the light between his eyes showed that he was thinking quickly.
Five acres may seem like a lot, but in fact it is not much. You must know that the output of fields in the Ming Dynasty was almost one stone, three stones more, and an average of two stones, which was about 300 kilograms.
The output from 5 acres of land is about 1,500 kilograms, and this is only in the shell.
If you are a tenant who rents from a gentry landlord's house, the landlord still needs to charge 30% to 50% of the rent, and the unscrupulous person will have to hand over 80%. If you calculate it at 50%, then there will only be 750 kilograms left.
If a strong laborer is full, he will get three liters (with shell) a day, 90 liters in a month, about 0.9 shi, and 10.8 shi in a year, equivalent to 1,620 kilograms.
What was left after paying the rent to the landlord was not enough to eat enough. Even if it was cut in half every day, it could barely survive a year.
Even if there is a good harvest in a year, the landlord will increase the rent collection ratio.
When it comes to collecting rent, landlords are very strict with their tenants.
Because only if you can barely get by can you continue to rent their fields and they can continue to collect rent, and farmers will never be able to escape the exploitation of landlords.
If you want the people to live well, you must let them have their own land.
Thinking of this, Chongzhen looked solemn and asked: "Guo Aiqing, how many people are there in the fief of Prince Qin's palace?"
"The answer to Your Majesty is about 1.2 million."
"How much is an acre of land?"
"Your Majesty, it's about 5 taels for the lower fields and 8 taels for the upper fields."
After Guo Yunhou responded, a bright light flashed in his mind, and he seemed to understand Chongzhen's thoughts. At this time, other ministers also figured out Chongzhen's next thoughts.
"What do you think if the fields of Prince Qin's palace are permanently sold to the people?"
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he immediately began to settle accounts: "Twenty thousand hectares is two million acres. If 30% of the 1.2 million people have their own fields, then only 800,000 people do not have their own fields.
Calculating that the average person has two and a half acres, he can basically eat enough, and he doesn’t have to look at the landlord’s eyes to live his life. "
All the ministers looked at each other, and then they all sighed and fell silent.
Looking at everyone's performance, Chongzhen was speechless and said: "What expressions are you looking at? Whether it's good or not, you have to say something."
After hearing Chongzhen's question, Sun Chengzong said: "Your Majesty, the method is a good method, but it is unrealistic. There is a big disaster in Shaanxi now and the people are fleeing.
The fields in the Prince of Qin's Mansion are all farmland, and each acre costs eighty taels of silver. How can the people have money to buy land? If they had money, they wouldn't have fled. "
"I have a solution to this problem!"
"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions!"
Sun Chengzong was just stunned for a moment, and immediately knelt down, his eyes full of surprise.
"Sun Aiqing, please get up!"
Chongzhen looked at everyone: "You all know the story about Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty who sold his official position to get a title!"
Everyone's eyes were full of doubts, but Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Household Affairs, suddenly realized: "Your Majesty wants to follow the example of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty? Give the land to the people first, and then pay the money after they grow food?"
"right!"
Chongzhen was very pleased with Guo Yunhou's reaction: "I call this method installment payment."
Later generations of installment payments were very clever, but they didn’t know that installment payments existed as early as the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty sold his official positions and was allowed to bargain and pay in installments. If the money to buy an official was not enough, he could pay a down payment and become an official, and make up the remaining balance after collecting money from the people while in office.
The money finally paid to the emperor through this method was about twice that of buying an official official.
Isn't this just modern installment payment and interest? The wisdom of the ancients is really unimaginable.
"This is what I envisioned. I will sell the land of Prince Qin's Mansion to the common people. When selling, it will be based on the fish scale book. Only those with less than five acres are allowed to buy, six taels per acre, and the per capita upper limit is 5 acres.
In addition to the little cultivated land they own, as long as there is no particularly big natural disaster, food and clothing is not a problem;
Second, the money purchased for the land can be returned to the court in four levels: five years, ten years, fifteen years, and twenty years. There is a price for each level, with an extra 0%, 10%, 20%, and more respectively. Thirty percent (interest),
For example, someone bought 5 acres of land, which is equivalent to 30 taels of silver. If he chooses to pay it off in ten years, he will pay back a total of 33 taels of silver, which is equivalent to three taels of silver per year.
Five acres of land produces 10 shi, so it’s not a big problem to give 30% to the court. I also exempted them from land tax. "
“Third, for people who choose to pay in installments, the land deed will be kept by the government until the money to buy the land is paid off. When the payment is completed, the land deed will be returned.
Finally, the land purchased in this way cannot be sublet or bought or sold privately. It can only be sold to the government and recovered at the current purchase price. "
"Wonderful, wonderful!"
As soon as Chongzhen finished speaking, Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Household Affairs, applauded.
He is engaged in finance and naturally knows how creative Chongzhen's idea is. What he thought was not feasible just now is now feasible.
Twenty thousand hectares of land, based on six taels per mu, is a total of 12 million taels. But the current victims have no money, and they will probably choose to pay it off in 20 years.
Because according to the emperor's calculation, it only requires less than two taels per year, and the pressure is much less than five years.
If calculated this way, the final selling price of the 20,000 hectares was about 15.6 million taels, which was 3.6 million taels more than the one-time sale.
The court received more money, and the people also got fields. Both parties were happy, so why not?
What's more, the common people bought the court's fields, and the landlords' fields were left unrented or rented less.
In order to collect rent, they either lower the rent or sell it, because the court has to collect taxes regardless of whether you plant it or not.
"Your Majesty, after what you said, I have an idea. I wonder if it is feasible?"
