prosperous age

"No wonder people were so concerned about how much land Xu's family had. It turns out that he actually had 2,000 hectares of land, which is comparable to some princely mansions."

Xu Jianglan realized later that the two thousand hectares of land in Xu Ge Lao's family seemed to be a bit too much.

It was still the early Wanli period. The princes of the Ming Dynasty, especially those of the first generation, had been around for several generations. In addition to the land rewarded by the emperor, they had already begun land annexation and massively encroached on people's land.

But so far, there has been no princely palace owning thousands of acres of fertile land.

In fact, when the princely palaces of the Ming Dynasty were established, the amount of land they could receive as rewards from the emperor was limited.

In the first year of Hongxi, Emperor Xuanzong granted 80 hectares of land to King Zhao, which opened the precedent of official land grants to vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty.

Before this, although Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di also made their sons kings, they only granted them the construction of palaces and annual salaries from the court, but did not reward them with land.

From then on, the emperor rewarded the princes with dozens of hectares, or thousands of acres, of land.

There is also a unit issue here. In later generations, the general units of area are hectares and mu. One hectare is 15 mu of land. Regardless of the fertility of the land, there is a fixed area.

The units of land area used in the Ming Dynasty were hectares and mu, and one hectare was equal to one hundred mu.

However, because the area of ​​each acre also needs to take into account the fertility of the land, the actual land area is not the same.

Therefore, it is naturally wrong to think that the 80 hectares of land granted to King Zhao were the 8,000 acres of land in later generations.

However, after it became a custom for vassal kings to be rewarded with land, the amount of land that the vassal kings could receive each time continued to increase.

Therefore, later on, the first land granted to the princes usually exceeded one hundred hectares.

Moreover, because the land granted to later princes increased, the original princes took advantage of this and used the excuse that they did not have enough money to ask the emperor for more.

Faced with such requests, the emperor would mostly choose to accept them, and each time give rewards of tens to hundreds of hectares of land.

The princes' lands were not only awarded by the emperor, but also purchased privately by themselves or even directly seized from the people.

Moreover, because the Ming Dynasty exempted all businesses of the princes' palaces from tax, including their fields and shops, many households chose to donate their fields to the princes' palaces in order to evade taxes.

In other words, the land donated to the prince's palace is not subject to national taxes or miscellaneous taxes levied by local governments. Apart from the land rent paid to the prince's palace, no other money needs to be paid.

The number of farmland owned by princes exceeded 10,000 hectares, which actually occurred mainly during the Wanli period, especially when Emperor Wanli took the lead in breaking through this scale.

When Emperor Wanli's younger brother, Prince Lu, was enfeoffed, he was given 20,000 hectares of land at one time. Emperor Wanli's son, Prince Fu, even requested to be granted 40,000 hectares of land. Although he was stopped by the ministers in the end, he was still given 20,000 hectares of land.

Some sources record that "King Chong was granted tens of thousands of hectares of land in the first year of Zhengde." In fact, it is very likely that he received hundreds of hectares, or tens of thousands of acres of land, when he was granted the title.

In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, the descendants of Chong Wang Zhu Jianze occupied a total of 4,722.64 mu of farmland, mountains, lakes and gardens in the seven counties under the jurisdiction of Runing Prefecture; and they occupied 2,680 hectares and several dozen mu of land in the seven counties outside Runing Prefecture, including Chenzhou and Zhecheng.

The above two places have a total of nearly 7,000 hectares of farmland. Of course, there are more than that, but these are the majority.

In other words, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Chongwang Mansion owned only about 10,000 hectares of land, which was far from the scale of tens of thousands of hectares of land granted in the first year of Zhengde.

In short, in this era, it was normal for a prince's palace to own several thousand hectares of land, but owning more than ten thousand hectares was exaggerated.

This is why Xu Jianglan didn't react at first. Now she realizes that the number of fields seemed a bit exaggerated.

Of course, that was the land of Lord Xu. The Wei family didn't have that much, only about 200 hectares, which was not eye-catching.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that nobles and some old gentry families owned tens of thousands of acres of land.

The only thing that needs to be noted is that Wei Guangde is very special. After all, the Wei family's rise to prominence actually started after Wei Guangde passed the imperial examination. Before that, the Wei family was just a centurion official in the imperial court. It was impossible for them to own much land.
Now Wei Guangde is the second assistant of the cabinet, and it was suddenly revealed that he owns tens of thousands of acres of land. If he is attacked by someone with ulterior motives, it will indeed be a big trouble.

As for the Duke of Wei's Mansion, although Xu Jianglan didn't know how much land her mother's family had, the amount was definitely not small, possibly even tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres.

In fact, not all of the fields of the Duke of Wei’s mansion are owned by them.

Many family members of the Duke of Wei also obtained official status, and they could also enjoy tax-free land treatment.

Therefore, some dirty fields were often registered under the names of these people first, but actually belonged to the Duke of Wei's Mansion.

Of course, it also means dispersing wealth.

No matter who you are, if you have too much wealth, you will be envied to some extent.

"Then we should try to reduce the number of fields in the next two years and spread them out."

Xu Jianglan said it directly as she thought of it.

"Yes, fortunately, it is now being piloted in Fujian. You know why it was chosen there, because there are no princely palaces or great nobles there, and even if there are fields, they won't be too many."

Wei Guangde said, "The land in Fujian is barren, so who would want to develop there?

With Fujian as a model, princes, nobles and wealthy families in other places will have enough time to disperse the land in their mansions so as to avoid revealing any shocking figures.

To put it bluntly, the court wants the land to collect taxes, and doesn’t care who owns the land.”

At this point, Wei Guangde turned his head to look at his wife and smiled, "But I really didn't expect that my family has already owned more than 20,000 acres of land without realizing it."

"Most of them are contributions. They just use your title as a Jinshi to avoid the local levy."

Xu Jianglan said with a smile.

"But they registered under my name and avoided the apportionment. The money that the local government had to collect was all charged to those common people."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh when he said this, like crocodile tears.

"So from what you said, the court will also clean up this kind of donated land in the future?"

Xu Jianglan asked uncertainly.

“Actually, everyone in the court knows about what happened to Lord Xu’s family.

Even Hai Rui knew in his heart that of the more than 200,000 acres of land under the name of the Xu Mansion, only tens of thousands of acres actually belonged to Lord Xu, and the more than 100,000 acres were actually donations.

But just because they were greedy for this little bit of money, countless people lost their fortunes.

After the land is surveyed, the court will implement the "One Whip Law" and the tax silver borne by the people's land will be calculated clearly and basically fixed. "

Wei Guangde said.

"What about the land donated to the prince's palace? I heard that nearly half of the farmland in Henan is in the hands of a few princes' palaces, as well as the county princes below."

Xu Jianglan said with a frown.

"I guess the official land granted by the emperor should still be exempt from taxes, but the land purchased outside the palace should be required to pay taxes."

When Wei Guangde heard Xu Jianglan talking about the fields in the palace, he couldn't help but feel moved.

As long as the amount of land that the emperor can reward is restricted and the princes are required to pay taxes on all the annexed land, I wonder if this will reduce their enthusiasm for land and slow down the pace of land annexation?

To put it bluntly, the output of land is actually limited, but Chinese people are too keen on land. They have more money in their hands but don’t know what to do with it. The only two uses left are lending and buying land.

Thinking of the rumors of later generations that wealthy merchants in Shanxi melted silver and poured it directly into the cellar to store silver and prevent theft, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of the financial tools of later generations, to see if there was any way to get the silver out of the cellar. Although the government has tried every means to take back the silver ingots on the market and cast them into silver coins, it is not so easy to get the things hidden underground.

Don't forget that the Ming Dynasty has been peaceful for nearly two hundred years, and the wealth of the aristocratic families is not so easy to get out.

He reached out and embraced his wife. Although Xu Jianglan was over 30 years old, she was well maintained and her every move revealed the charm of a mature lady.

Although Wei Guangde couldn't resist the temptation of young girls, he also had no resistance to the charm of mature women.

Nothing happened that night and the next day soon arrived.

After getting up and washing, Wei Guangde did some boxing to strengthen his muscles. After eating breakfast, he did not rush out, but went to the study first.

He wrote several letters, one of which was naturally sent to the Duke of Wei's mansion in Nanjing, and the other was in Jiujiang, a letter to his father.

Several other letters will also be sent to Jiujiang, but they will not be delivered directly. Instead, they will be left for his father to consider.

They are all officials who retired and returned to their hometowns in recent years. Relying on their official status, they are the ones who would be best suited to claim the land in their names.

Since they are no longer in the court, it doesn't matter if they have more or less land, and they are not afraid of criticism from the people.

With him as the elder minister around, there is no need to worry about what those officials might have against them.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Wei Guangde handed the letter directly to his wife Xu Jianglan, who arranged for someone to go south.

After doing all this, Wei Guangde went out and got on the sedan chair to rush to the imperial city.

Wei Guangde entered the duty room and had just picked up the teacup that was brought to him but before he could drink it, Lu Bu came back with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Master, it was just sent by the Prime Minister. He said it was a draft of the memorial. Please take a look."

Wei Guangde took it and glanced at it, then said to Lu Bu, "I see, you can go down."

In his hand was the memorial drafted by Zhang Juzheng requesting a comprehensive survey of the land in Fujian.

Of course, this memorial was not written last night, but had been completed long ago, but had been continuously revised, and might even have accepted the opinions of Zhang Siwei, Wang Guoguang and others, before finally appearing in his hands.

Wei Guangde had no objection to the memorial. He just took a quick look at it and put it aside.

He did not start dealing with official business, but instead took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote a few paragraphs.

This needs to be handed over to the Ministry of War, and they will send it to the southwest.

In order to ensure the circulation of Ming Yuanbao in Myanmar and other places, it is natural to ban the use of silver ingots in Myanmar.

This time, all the gold and silver seized by Yu Dayou in Toungoo City would be shipped back to the Ming Dynasty, even the copper. From then on, all the precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper mined in Myanmar would be purchased by the local government of Myanmar and shipped back to the Ming Dynasty to mint coins.

After thinking for a while, Wei Guangde put the written note aside, took out another one, spread it out, and wrote a note to the Ministry of Revenue.

The Ministry of Revenue was asked to advance 200,000 taels of silver to be sent to the southwest to be used for military expenses in Burma.

This amount of silver can be deducted from the gold and silver returned by Myanmar later.

In short, first circulate the Ming Dynasty's ingots to Myanmar, and gradually let the locals get used to using Ming Dynasty's currency like the Ming Dynasty.

It can also subtly enhance the Burmese people's sense of belonging to the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, although the people of the Ming Dynasty have accepted the circulation of gold and silver coins minted by the court, due to the geographical advantages, the gold and silver coins of Ming Tongbao are now more circulated in the north and less in the south.

This year, the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue has begun to mint more than just copper coins, and has also begun minting gold and silver coins. I believe that in a few years, gold and silver coins will be popularized on a larger scale in the south.

Rectifying the currency system may seem like a small matter, but in fact, under the silver standard system, it has too much impact on the common people.

Wei Guangde was unwilling to see the people under his rule being exploited by unscrupulous businessmen because of the currency law, who manipulated the silver price and plundered the interests of the farmers.

Wei Guangde was even thinking that when the court's finances became abundant, protective prices would be set according to the existing levels during the summer and autumn grain harvests to prevent rice merchants from manipulating rice prices and causing losses to farmers.

The minimum price for purchasing grain set by the government requires the government to come up with a large amount of silver to support it.

Otherwise, if the so-called minimum price is simply set without opening up the purchase, the farmers will inevitably suffer losses.

Because the government's price cannot turn the harvest into money at all, when faced with the taxes that need to be paid, the people can only accept the low purchase price offered by the grain merchants no matter how reluctant they are.

However, Wei Guangde didn’t know that even if the Ming court issued such regulations, what countermeasures would be taken by the local governments at that time.

After the note was written, Wei Guangde handed him a piece of reed cloth and asked him to arrange for someone to deliver it immediately.

After Lu Bu left, he started his work for the day.

In the following two days, the entire Ming Dynasty court seemed to have pressed the pause button, and the official business of many government offices came to varying degrees of stagnation.

Because after the officials entered the yamen, most of them gathered together to discuss the land survey in Fujian.

Who owns the land in the Ming Dynasty?

The royal family, military settlements and scholars accounted for the vast majority, while the number of self-cultivating farmers was decreasing.

The royal family is protected by ancestral rules and does not have to pay taxes, so they are not afraid.

Military settlements were nominally military households, but in reality they were controlled by nobles and had been divided up like private fields.

The scholars naturally refer to the civilian gentry and officials, and this land survey had a significant impact on them.

"Master, the Prime Minister is outside the door."

Lu Bu had just brought in a stack of memorials, walked to the door and then fell back, whispering in Wei Guangde's ear.

"Wasn't he summoned to the palace?"

Wei Guangde asked in a low voice.

"It's been a while. Maybe he's back."

Lu Bu replied softly.

"If he comes, just let him come in."

Wei Guangde ordered, "If he comes in, keep watch outside and don't let anyone get close."

After Lu Bu went out, Zhang Juzheng walked into the room in a moment.

"Uncle brother."

Wei Guangde bowed.

"Shandai, the palace has approved the matter of land reclamation."

Zhang Juzheng said. (End of this chapter)