1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 856 Agricultural Cooperatives

October 1670, 10, Linzi Prefecture, Yuanhe County (now Parramatta, Australia, 9 kilometers west of Sydney).

At this time, it was the spring plowing season, and the fields in Dawan Village, Gaoping Township were busy.Dozens of farmers led strong pack horses and dragged several large seed drills, lined up, sowing wheat seeds on the wide and flat land.Followed by more than a dozen farmers, holding shovels, kept carefully burying some uncovered wheat seeds.

This piece of farmland covers an area of ​​more than [-] mu and belongs to more than a dozen farmers. However, because the crops they plant are all wheat and they are connected in one piece, a small agricultural cooperative group was formed spontaneously to plant and produce In the process, they help each other, cultivate, manage and harvest in a unified way.Even after the autumn harvest, the harvested wheat is sold to the grain storage station in the village.

Such small-scale cooperation and mutual aid organizations spontaneously formed by farmers have emerged in various places more than [-] years ago. The premise is still private ownership of land, that is, the land is owned by each household, and the cooperative group Allocate labor during the busy farming season, and jointly purchase (lease) pack horses, cattle and various agricultural machinery and tools.

These spontaneously formed small agricultural cooperative groups (communities) are said to have borrowed from the various collective production villages first organized by prefectural and county governments.As we all know, all immigrants who come to Hanzhou mainland or overseas territories organized by the government must accept the unified arrangement of the government and serve for three years free of charge.In addition to being assigned to towns and cities as workers, apprentices, and buddies, most of these immigrants will be organized into production villages one by one, reclaim wasteland, build houses, and build water conservancy in the newly expanded settlements. Build into mature villages and towns.

In each production village, all the immigrants are unified and organized to live, cultivate and harvest together.In addition, in order to facilitate the organization of production, Mintun managers usually sow the same crops uniformly on contiguous land.This mode of agricultural production not only has the rudiment of collective farm management, but also faintly has the shadow of large-scale agricultural planting in later generations.

But it is undeniable that although the management and planting mode of the villages organized by the government are relatively extensive, the production efficiency is much higher than that of individual farmers.

After each immigrant has served for three years, the government will grant [-] mu of land, which may also include some mountainous or forest land. It is impossible to use all the [-] mu of land for farming with only one's own strength.At that time, the government considered that the arable land in Hanzhou was relatively poor and the output was not high. At the same time, in order to leave room for farmers to fallow and maintain it, the government set the [-]-acre land grant standard.

However, with the gradual maturity of land development and the gradual recovery of soil fertility, and under the guidance of local agricultural technicians, the fallow mode that was prevalent in agricultural production was changed to the crop rotation mode to make full use of the land and increase production. out.In this case, individual farmers are in a relatively weak position not only in terms of production organization efficiency, but also in terms of resistance to various risks (drought, flood, pests, agricultural product purchases, etc.).

At the same time, the scattered and fragile agricultural individual economy can neither meet the demand of industrial development for agricultural products, but also has the danger of polarization.After all, the small-scale peasant economy has little potential to increase production, and realizing large-scale agricultural mechanization is a very long-term goal. The practical solution is to organize individual farmers to develop agriculture and increase production through cooperatives.

For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Industry vigorously promoted and advocated the establishment of a number of agricultural cooperatives in the rural areas of Hanzhou and several overseas territories. The household-style individual agricultural production mode should be developed into a large-scale and intensive planting mode in areas as much as possible to improve agricultural production efficiency and expand agricultural output.

"Old Geng, Guichang, take a break." When he reached the ground, Pan Huamin straightened up and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand. "Dude, drink up, it's time to rest."

"Sowing the cultivated land is to work hard and finish it in one breath. Otherwise, drinking water for a while and resting for a while, how to sow all the wheat seeds during the spring plowing season...You guys, it's just passed After a few good days, you can’t bear the hardship anymore?” Geng Kaizhong stopped, looked at the field, and worked all morning, but he had sown less than [-] mu, and his portion of the land hadn’t been sown yet. I am a little anxious.

"Old Geng, look at what you said." Pan Huamin said with a smile: "Although you are older, it can't be said that we are not as good as you in enduring hardships! They are all veterans of farming, and we have Farm horses, with this advanced seed drill, this half-day’s work is equivalent to two or three days’ work in Daming. Isn’t there a saying, sharpening a knife is not a mistake for woodcutters. I am exhausted and can’t get down. If the land can’t be plowed, that’s secondary. If at night, you can’t climb into the bed of your wife, then you will suffer!”

"Haha..." Several farmers couldn't help laughing after hearing this.

"...Xiao Pan, you save your energy by laying in the field, so that you can plow the field in bed at night!"

"No wonder, Xiao Pan's family had three cubs in five years, and the co-authors are plowing the land day and night. That's really hard work!"

"Hey, all of you, it seems like you don't plow the land at night." Pan Huamin was teased by everyone, but he didn't take it for granted.In the countryside and mountain villages, after working, besides listening to the village chief read the newspapers and preach the official proclamations, isn't it just talking dirty, making fun, and killing the hard and boring life.

"Old Geng, take a break." Ding Guichang looked back at the plow horses, which were sweating profusely, breathing rapidly, and wagging their tails, "These animals also need to drink some water, add some feed, and take a rest. Or else, if the function is broken, we still have to collect money to pay for it?"

"That's right, if people don't rest, the livestock will also rest. Judging by the progress, all the wheat sowing can be completed within three to five days." A man in his forties said, walked to the ground, picked up a pot of water, and gurgled He gulped and drank.

Hearing this, Geng Kaizhong shook his head helplessly. Who told me that he was impatient. He always thought that he should finish the farm work at hand as soon as possible, and then he could spare time to tend the fruit trees in the forest and the vegetables in the yard. Sell ​​some pocket money in the township.

"When the king of Qi proclaimed himself emperor, the first thing that came to mind was our peasants. The agricultural tax will be reduced from 15% to 12% starting next year, which fully reduces the tax rate for our common people by 3 points." Geng Kaizhong drank After taking a few sips of water, he said with emotion: "I am really satisfied when I think that next year's harvest will be a little more in the field!"

"That's right, the king of our Qi country is a good king, and now he is called the emperor, he must be a good emperor!" Ding Guichang echoed.

"Of course!" Pan Huamin took the words, "Don't say that the emperors of the Manchus are incomparable, even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are incomparable. Back then, if I hadn't walked to Denglai with a sigh of relief, and then took advantage of Holding a piece of wood in the dark night, I fled to Changshan Island. Maybe I was eaten by wild dogs. I thought that joining the self-rescue army in Qi State would be the best life I had ever lived. But I never thought , After three years of discharge from the army, I came to Hanzhou by boat. The state of Qi really gave me [-] acres of land and two houses... Hehe, what surprised me the most was that they even gave me a daughter-in-law. Being able to carry on the family line will not cut off the incense of my old Pan family! Nothing to say, as long as my emperor of Qi has a word, even if I am asked to die now."

"Come on, don't overestimate your capabilities, you little commoner, how can you let the emperor kill you!" Ding Guichang sarcastically said.

"Anyway, our emperor of Qi State won the hearts of the people, and he gave us land, house, and daughter-in-law. Now, he is thinking about us little people, and lowered the agricultural tax. This is benevolent and good governance. As long as the emperor needs it, I will go through fire and water, and I will not hesitate. Although I have lost a lot of fighting skills on the battlefield, we dare to give up our lives to protect our country of Qi and our emperor."

In fact, the Qi State lowered the agricultural tax from 20% to 17%, which is still much higher than the nominal tax rates of previous dynasties. Not to mention the 5% tax in the Western Han Dynasty, even the agricultural tax stipulated by the Ming Dynasty is only 10%- About [-]%.But the agricultural tax in Qi State is not attached to the person, there is no poll tax, and it only depends on the ownership of the land.Moreover, when the government collects agricultural taxes, there is no fire consumption, no silver, and no apportionment by local governments.

At the same time, in order to make it easier for farmers to pay agricultural taxes, prefectures and counties in various regions will set up grain stations in towns and towns, and openly purchase grain according to the national unified grain guide price.As for cash crops such as cotton, oilseeds, and sugar cane, the government will also give a minimum guide price and guarantee the purchase to prevent agricultural product processing companies from deliberately lowering the purchase price and harming the economic interests of farmers.

That is to say, the agricultural tax in the Qi State is only the tax rate specified by the cabinet government, and the local government is not allowed to increase, levy, or increase other miscellaneous taxes.

The basis for calculating agricultural tax in Qi State is divided into the following two types: [-]. Agricultural income calculated based on annual output, which is the taxable output of agricultural tax, not actual output, and is adjusted every five years; [-]. Agricultural income calculated based on product income, It is mainly the basis for tax calculation of agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry products. For the listed agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry products, the agricultural income shall be determined according to the income of the products.The entire tax calculation model is simple and clear.

Daming’s taxes are roughly divided into two parts. One is the land tax, which is calculated according to the area of ​​the field owned by each household, but it also includes additional consumption (the loss of food and the recasting of tax silver will cause loss, probably another During the Hongwu period, the total amount of collection was fixed at about 7 million shi, and became a quota. This figure did not change much throughout the Ming Dynasty.Calculated in this way, Daming's land tax is not high in all dynasties.

The original intention of Emperor Hongwu, who was born in poverty, was good, to reduce the burden on the people as much as possible.But the consequences are also obvious.As an important source of income for the country, land tax cannot change for hundreds of years, but government expenditures cannot remain unchanged, and private productivity has also been developing.Then the government will naturally have other ways to ask the people for money, and this way is even more unconstrained by the system.

Another type of Daming Tian Fu is service silver.All income from land tax had to be transported to Beijing, and the service bank became the administrative expenses of the local government.Various additional expenditures of the emperor and various government offices are usually apportioned to the localities in the form of "sitting office" and converted into additional service money.This has caused bureaucrats at all levels to work together and apportion the money layer by layer.There are more than [-] types of additional taxes formed by apportioning the service silver to the land tax.

Calculated in this way, the agricultural tax collection rate in Ming Dynasty is usually around 30%, and even reaches 40%-50% in some areas. Coupled with the exploitation and exploitation of landlords and gentry, the burden on farmers in Ming Dynasty is extremely heavy.

In addition, the scope of land tax collection in the Ming Dynasty was not limited to cultivated land.Mulberry trees, orchards, fish ponds, woodlands, and even palm trees in Qiongzhou Prefecture are all included in the scope of taxation, which can be regarded as a proof of what is called the land of the king.Considering that the imperial court does not need these various products, farmers who operate mulberry trees, orchards, and fish ponds also use grain to pay taxes.

The agricultural tax of Ming Dynasty accounted for nearly 2000% of the entire fiscal revenue, while the commercial tax was only a measly 220%.Moreover, the collection of Daming agricultural tax is also taking advantage of the downward trend year by year.During the Wanli period, Daming was still able to collect 348 million taels of silver converted from agricultural tax, 2652.6 million taels of industrial and commercial tax, and 400 million taels of miscellaneous income, with a total fiscal and tax revenue of 17 million taels.During the reign of Chongzhen, the fiscal revenue dropped to more than 10 million taels, and in the [-]th year of Chongzhen, it was only a few [-] taels.

Qi State's financial revenue last year exceeded 200 million Hanzhou silver dollars, which is about 1500 million taels of silver, and the population of Hanzhou is only 500 million.

Qi's fiscal revenue is so high that it does not rely on the collection of traditional agricultural taxes, but on a large amount of commercial taxes and the huge profits handed in by government-controlled factories, mines, and merchants.In the total fiscal revenue last year, the agricultural tax was only 230 million Hanzhou silver dollars, accounting for less than [-]%.

Therefore, the emperor and the cabinet of Qi State issued an edict to reduce the agricultural tax collection rate from 15% to 12%. This financial loss is insignificant compared to the year-by-year increase in commercial taxes and corporate profits.

Moreover, this move can not only reduce the economic pressure of farmers to a certain extent, but also further reduce the cost of agricultural production, increase the enthusiasm of farmers for production, provide more agricultural products for the ever-expanding industrial production, and correspondingly increase the agricultural income of farmers .

A stable agricultural production environment, advanced agricultural production tools, various forms of agricultural cooperative groups (cooperatives), and the gradual reduction of economic burdens are all in order to start an agricultural revolution while the industrial revolution in Qi is underway.

The development of population, agriculture, and industry will be the core of Qi's economic and social transformation for decades to hundreds of years to come.These changes, interacting with each other and intertwined with other economic and social changes, together constitute the foundation of Qi's industry, cities, people's livelihood and empire.On this basis, the most indispensable condition is a country with a thriving population and food and clothing for all people.

(End of this chapter)