Qiming 1158

Chapter 979 Lu You's Shock

Lu You was deeply surprised by what Wang Qi said.

It is not only a matter of eating enough, but also a matter of paying taxes with copper coins by farmers in the Ming Dynasty.

This is not a simple matter. If nothing else, where did the peasants of the Ming Dynasty get so many copper coins?
Without copper coins, how can I pay taxes with copper coins?

Are all the peasants in Daming so rich?
"Charge copper coins? How is this done?"

Lu You hurriedly asked.

Wang Qi explained patiently.

"It's not difficult to say, before the tax season every year, the imperial court will send officials to be responsible for purchasing grain from the farmers. The farmers can freely choose how much grain to sell to the imperial court. In the big granary.

First, these grains can be used as reserves for the imperial court in case of emergencies, and secondly, farmers can have more copper coins in their hands, which is not only convenient for paying taxes and transportation later, but also convenient for farmers to buy commodities and support a group of traders. This is the best of both worlds. matter. "

"I see……"

Lu You thought of the extremely complicated tax system in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Taxation of various kinds of goods has caused unbearable pain among the people. Not only do they have to pay full taxes, but they also have to pay extra for the loss of goods in the process of transportation. This cost has become an important means for officials to exploit farmers.

As a court official, Lu You had also heard about this rule, and deeply felt that such a rule was inappropriate and unfair, but there was no better way.

After the tax reform in the Ming Dynasty, the full use of copper coins to pay taxes is not only convenient and quick at a glance, but also directly abolishes this part of the transportation loss and reduces the burden on farmers.

Great policy, just...

"Doesn't it take a lot of effort to make such a change?"

Wang Qi nodded.

"In the past, tax payment required the delivery of physical objects, food, cloth, and even many strange things. Not to mention the troublesome collection, the most difficult thing is that these objects are easily damaged.

Corruption and damage during transportation are very fatal, and this part of the loss in the past has to be passed on to the peasants by the court, and the peasants are required to pay this part of the loss in advance to make up for the loss of the court.

This part of the excess tax revenue is often not handed over to the imperial treasury, and is controlled by the local officials themselves, which greatly condones the greed of the local officials, and makes them make a big fuss about this tax to accumulate money.

The peasants were miserable, and the court could not collect taxes. This situation had to be changed. So after the Ming Dynasty established the country, His Majesty felt that this regulation was not good for the people, but was beneficial for the government to enrich its own pockets, so he decided to change it.

However, the taxation is still inconvenient, and the farmers are still deeply troubled. After thinking about it for a long time, His Majesty decided to collect the tax in copper coins. Although there have been many twists and turns, in order to facilitate the farmers and reduce the burden on the farmers, nothing is impossible. . "

Wang Qi's answer left Lu You speechless.

He felt a little humiliating to ask the question.

And what Wang Qi said next surprised Lu You even more.

"In addition to taxation, the Ming court also did a lot of practical things, such as allocating farmland to farmers and establishing peasant associations, so that everyone could have their own fields and farmers would work hard to cultivate them, and then the court would provide high-quality farm tools on a large scale at relatively low prices.

In the past, the old imperial salt and iron monopoly sold inferior agricultural tools to farmers at high prices, so that farmers could not get good agricultural tools, and the production efficiency was reduced, and it was difficult to turn the soil in winter. Freeze locust larvae to death.

His Majesty the Emperor knew about this, and like salt, he lowered the price of agricultural tools on a large scale and strictly controlled the quality, so that farmers could buy enough high-quality agricultural tools, which would not only improve production efficiency, but also turn the soil in winter and freeze the locusts to death. It can reduce the probability of locust plagues. "

Wang Qi smiled and said: "When the Jin Kingdom was still there, there were many locust plagues in Shandong, which often caused the fields to fail and farmers to starve to death. However, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, locust plagues rarely occurred, and even if they did, they were very small. If it is extinguished, the food has basically been harvested for many years."

"Can the locust plague be controlled like this?"

Lu You was a little surprised: "I've never noticed this..."

Wang Qi nodded.

"The locusts like to lay their eggs in the soil, so even in winter, unless it is extremely cold and heavy snow, they can survive. In the past, farmers lacked agricultural tools and could not turn the soil in winter. Once the winter was not cold, they could not freeze to death and hide in deep Eggs in the soil.

But now every winter, the peasant association will organize farmers to regularly dig the soil and turn the soil below to the upper layer. Even if it doesn't snow, the cold wind can still kill many pests. In this way, when spring begins , pests are greatly reduced. "

After Lu You heard this, he was silent for a while, feeling quite emotional.

"Oh, so, I really haven't heard of the Dao Dao here."

"There are many ways to govern civil affairs, but many problems can be solved. As long as the imperial court is determined to make progress, these problems can be solved. Even in the face of floods and droughts, as long as there are enough water conservancy projects, it can be overcome."

Wang Qi smiled and pointed to the east: "To the east is a water conservancy project construction site. The construction started in Hongwu three years ago and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The project is very large, so the four township farmers' associations led 21 village farmers' associations. , Gather the young men of 21 villages to undertake this project.

The imperial court allocated funds and sent project guidance, but the strong men of a village took advantage of the slack to work hard, and finally the project is about to be completed. After the success of the project, the cultivated land of the four townships will benefit from it, and land irrigation will be much easier.

As for water conservancy projects like this, from the first year of Hongwu to now, Daming has built more than 500 projects in more than 500 counties across the country, all of which were allocated by the imperial court. The township farmers' association and the village farmers' association are responsible for coordinating the labor force. Everyone works together , complete together. "

"so many?"

Lu You was shocked: "This peasant association is too powerful, isn't it?"

"The peasant association is the foundation of Daming's defeat of the Jin Kingdom and the establishment of the country. His Majesty the Emperor attaches great importance to it. Even when the county government is in charge, it needs a lot of help from the peasant association. The county government absolutely cannot avoid the peasant association. It is possible that the county government does something wrong.”

Wang Qi was somewhat proud of the institutional advantages of the Ming Kingdom, and smiled: "Because of the existence of the peasant association, the peasants of the entire Ming Kingdom have been organized and mobilized to do big things and build projects in one go. What's the point of the matter?"

Lu You's eyes widened, but he didn't come back to his senses for a while.

He never thought that this system of the Ming Kingdom could have such a function, and it could organize the farmers of the entire Ming Kingdom and let them work together to build projects. What kind of powerful force is this?
"To do so many things, to build so many water conservancy projects, and to fight everywhere, to make great constructions... Is there any problem with the finances of the Ming Kingdom?"

This became Lu You's biggest doubt.

And this is what Wang Qi feels most proud of.

"It can still be maintained. Does Deputy Envoy Lu feel that it is strange that Daming collects less tax and spends more money? No, Daming does not collect much tax on a single farmer, much less than the previous dynasty, but the total amount is far more than the previous dynasty. ."

"How is this going?"

Lu You was puzzled.

"Because Daming eliminated the landlords, gentry and corrupt officials."

Wang Qi put away his smile and said sternly: "Da Ming eradicated those rentiers who deceived the court and the peasants, eradicated them all, directly managed the peasants, and managed the taxes, although the taxes charged on individual peasants are huge decreased, but the total amount was greatly increased.

At first, I thought it was incredible, but I soon realized that so many taxes were eaten by landlords, gentry and corrupt officials. No tax at all.

The peasants’ land was taken away by them, and they became their tenants to produce food for them. The government could not control the tenants, so they could only directly ask the landlords to collect taxes. The landlords were often powerful and their relationship with the government was unclear. Not clear.

Some officials do their jobs and take a little bit of money. Some officials take the benefits themselves and treat the landlords as poor households and hide them from reporting. For example, a landlord has [-] mu of land, but because he has a good relationship with the government, he spends money and bribes it. officials, so officials concealed his land situation, treated him as a poor household, and only charged a little tax.

As a result, the agricultural tax of [-] mu of land was swallowed up by the landlords, gentry and corrupt officials, and the imperial court could not get this part of the tax. And this is only the situation of one land. If you look at the whole country, how tragic is it?Does the court still collect taxes?will only become less and less. "

(End of this chapter)