prosperous age

"Grand Secretary Wei, the Grand Secretary requests your presence for a meeting."

It was another afternoon. Wei Guangde had finished processing all the memorials and was sitting at the tea table in the outer room, drinking tea and resting, when a clerk from the Grand Secretary's office came to invite him.

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit."

Wei Guangde nodded to the person who came and said something.

Although the two men were of vastly different social standing, as the saying goes, even when beating a dog, one must consider its owner. Since the man was Zhang Juzheng's man, he had to treat him with a little more courtesy.

This is actually a two-way street; it reflects one's own refinement, and one's own people can also make things easier for them when they need help.

Wei Guangde sat for a moment before getting up and walking out.

He wasn't sitting there to put on airs, but rather to review the official documents he had handled that day and confirm that there was nothing that needed to be discussed at the cabinet meeting.

As I said before, for important matters, even if he insists on doing things a certain way, he still needs to inform others.

In case something really happens, the others won't be kept in the dark.

When Wei Guangde arrived at the Grand Secretary's office, the clerk at the door immediately bowed respectfully.

"Is everyone here?"

When Wei Guangde passed by him, he simply asked a question casually.

"Grand Secretary Shen has arrived, but Grand Secretary Zhang has not yet arrived."

As they were talking, Zhang Siwei's figure appeared from the garden in the distance.

"Hehe, Ziwei has arrived."

Wei Guangde stood at the door, waiting for Zhang Siwei to approach. He cupped his hands in greeting and said with a smile, "Ziwei, you're the last one to arrive."

"I went out at noon and just finished taking care of some things. My apologies."

Zhang Siwei returned the greeting as he spoke.

Indeed, nothing major has happened in the court recently, so the various departments shouldn't have much official business to handle.

The cabinet meetings during this period were more of a formality.

The two walked together into the Grand Secretary's office, where Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing were already sitting and waiting.

Upon seeing them enter, they all stood up and bowed.

After the four of them sat down, Zhang Juzheng said with a smile, "Thanks to the hard work of you gentlemen, the world is now at peace."

Lately, my duty room has been filled with unimportant memorials; not a single important one.

"hehe."

Zhang Juzheng's words were met with a light laugh.

"Thanks to the wisdom of the Grand Secretary, the world is truly at peace today. All the villains are behaving themselves and there is indeed no trouble. We have been able to have a much quieter time."

Wei Guangde continued.

"Exactly, exactly."

"Indeed."

The scene was harmonious and the atmosphere was pleasant, but Wei Guangde still glanced at Shen Shixing sitting below him, wondering why he had arrived so early today.

"It seems that none of you have anything important to say."

Upon seeing this, Zhang Juzheng still smiled and stroked his beard as he asked.

Everyone shook their heads, saying that everything was fine.

Immediately, Zhang Juzheng's smile faded, and he shouted to the clerks and secretaries serving outside, "Everyone outside, step back three zhang from the duty room and do not approach."

Upon hearing Zhang Juzheng's sudden change of heart, Wei Guangde and the others immediately stopped smiling, and he also glanced at Shen Shixing again.

After waiting a while, when everyone outside had left, Zhang Juzheng said solemnly, "The reason for today's arrangements is that I have important matters to discuss with you all."

Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei immediately adopted a listening posture, which could not be considered flattery, but rather a sign of respect for the Grand Secretary.

"There have been some rumors circulating outside recently. I wonder if any of you have heard them?"

Zhang Juzheng began by asking the crowd a question.

"rumor?"

Wei Guangde muttered something under his breath, but did not speak.

Countless rumors circulate and ferment in Beijing every day, and he had no idea what Zhang Juzheng was talking about, so how could he respond?

Zhang Siwei couldn't help but ask directly, "Your Excellency, what rumors are you referring to?"

"After the land survey, officials in the city had various opinions about the taxation because there was a lot of extra land after the survey."

Zhang Juzheng began.

So that's why.

Wei Guangde nodded. He knew that there was a lot of talk about it outside. After all, which official in the capital didn't have some land? Even if he was from a poor family, he couldn't resist the offer of land by wealthy local families.

Undoubtedly, the imperial court's tax policy has a significant impact on this, and it's normal for everyone to have their own interests at heart and to be discussing it extensively.

"Ru Mo came to me when he heard the news earlier, and I also felt it was necessary to talk about it, to unify our thinking, and to quell the rumors as soon as possible to avoid causing trouble."

Zhang Juzheng continued, “As you all know, the land survey began because of the loss of land in various places. Grain tax comes from the land, and the land area is constantly decreasing, resulting in a shortage of tax grain.”

Now that the land survey has been completed, all the missing land has been recovered, and a large number of newly added land has even been discovered.

Now, all regions have re-compiled the fish-scale registers based on this, and the land tax base of our Great Ming Dynasty is now secure.

When Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, the other three nodded slightly.

"Why do we need to survey the land? It's all because of the messy and irresponsible actions of local officials."

They constantly underreported and omitted land, helping local gentry conceal their properties and forcibly burdening the people with taxes.

They only thought about not paying national taxes themselves, but making the people pay taxes instead, not realizing that this was a path to their own demise.

It's not that they didn't know, but rather that they were blinded by greed.

Zhang Juzheng's next words were quite harsh, hitting the nail on the head.

The gentry bribed local officials with silver to conceal or underreport their own land holdings, and then when the annual tax was distributed, the tax was dumped on the land of ordinary people.

The real officials naturally wouldn't bother with it; it was all done by lower-level clerks.

But they were not unaware of this; after all, the amount of farmland within their borders was decreasing year by year, and anyone who wasn't blind knew what was going on.

"Now that the land survey is complete, only the last two or three provinces remain. Although not all reports have been submitted, the figures submitted in stages are largely complete, so the task can be considered accomplished."

But the next question was how to choose: whether to levy land taxes according to the tax system established by the founding emperor, or to apportion taxes based on the tax base he had set.

Zhang Juzheng finally steered the conversation back to the main topic: whether to levy a tax of five liters of grain per mu of land or to apportion it based on a tax base of 2950 million shi of grain.

Strictly speaking, both were established by Zhu Yuanzhang, but the order was that the 2950 million shi of grain tax came first, and then the regulations of five sheng for official land and three sheng for private land were established.

"Ru Mo, based on the current land survey, can the grain tax exceed forty million shi?"

Wei Guangde suddenly asked.

He hadn't asked for the data to be calculated, but he believed Shen Shixing must have done the calculations based on the quotas in various regions. After all, land wasn't taxed according to a uniform standard; there were official land, private land, and several prefectures levying heavy taxes, all of which had to be taken into account.

"Approximately 41 million shi (a unit of dry measure)."

Sure enough, upon hearing Wei Guangde's question, Shen Shixing immediately responded.

Wei Guangde nodded. It seemed the rumors were highly credible, and officials with access to the figures were likely involved.

But that's nothing, it'll be made public sooner or later anyway.

"Our Great Ming Dynasty has suffered greatly from financial difficulties in the past. Now that there is an opportunity to increase tax revenue, we should not give it up."

Moreover, as far as I know, the land tax in our Great Ming Dynasty is relatively light, and the amount of private land is comparable to that of the former Yuan Dynasty.

If the tax base set by Emperor Taizu were applied, the farmers would probably only need to pay two liters of tax per mu (a unit of dry measure), which would be far too lenient.

Too light a crop seems detrimental to intensive farming practices, and might even negatively impact yields.

Wei Guangde had thought about this issue after hearing the news some time ago.

Taxes are something that can't be too heavy or too light; they have to be just right.

"Isn't it good to keep wealth among the people? Besides, what Grand Secretary Wei said about fearing that the people wouldn't work hard in farming is just wishful thinking and shouldn't be taken seriously."

Zhang Siwei immediately retorted.

Although his family is a merchant family, they also own a lot of land and now they call themselves landlords. Of course, he hopes that the land tax will be lighter.

Since the land has already been handed over, a lighter land tax would mean less tax to pay, so why not?

"Ziwei still remembers the old stories of the previous dynasty. The taxes were light in the Yuan dynasty, but what was the result?"

Wei Guangde laughed.

“That’s different. Although the taxes were light in the Yuan Dynasty, the corvée labor was heavy.”

Zhang Siwei immediately retorted, explaining the reasons for the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

In fact, among all the dynasties in Chinese history, the Yuan Dynasty had the lightest tax rate. Even considering that it divided people into different classes, the tax rate was only three liters of grain per mu of land, which was really the lowest it could be.

The Tang Dynasty collected one dou (a unit of dry measure) of tax, while the Yuan Dynasty collected a 30% discount.

It can be said that, from the perspective of taxation alone, the Mongol Yuan dynasty's characteristic of governing the world with tolerance was fully demonstrated.

Ye Ziqi, a scholar from the early Ming Dynasty, recorded in his book "Caomuzi": "After Kublai Khan unified China, the Yuan Dynasty enjoyed peace and prosperity for sixty or seventy years. Punishments were lenient and taxes were light. Arms were rarely used. The living were provided for, and the dead were buried. Travelers could stay at home even when traveling thousands of miles. It was truly a prosperous time!"

The revised version of the History of Yuan Dynasty, Volume 58, also records that in the first year of Emperor Wenzong's reign (1340,699), the number of households with tax revenue in the Ministry of Revenue was 13,400,699, an increase of more than 200,000 compared to the previous year, which was less than the peak of the Han and Tang dynasties.

The late Ming historian Tan Qianyun also recorded: "During the Song Dynasty, the land tax was one dou; when the Yuan Dynasty took control of the country, it decreed that the land tax should not exceed three sheng per mu. The people of Wu were very happy and prosperous. During the Yuan Tong and Zhi Yuan periods, Wu was known throughout the world for its wealth and prosperity."

...The people of Wuzhong were happier during the Yuan dynasty and more distressed during the Ming dynasty; this was not due to changes in governance, but rather to the varying degrees of land tax burden.

This shows that even the people of the Ming Dynasty believed that Ming taxes were heavy and envied the peaceful and prosperous life of the people under the rule of the former Yuan Dynasty.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, believed that the Yuan Dynasty perished because it "lost the world due to excessive leniency."

In his book "Huangming Baoxun", he wrote, "I believe that the Yuan Dynasty lost the empire because it was too lenient. In the past, the Qin Dynasty lost because of its tyranny, and the Han Dynasty restored it by being lenient. By using leniency to counteract the severity, it succeeded. Now the Yuan Dynasty lost because of its leniency, so I will counteract it by being severe. The balance between leniency and severity should be appropriate."

Strictly speaking, the Ming Dynasty had light taxes, especially commercial taxes, which made merchants like the Ming Dynasty.

Don't assume that the Southern Song Dynasty should be the most favored by merchants, since the political environment supported business; in fact, that's not the case.

Merchants were numerous in the Song Dynasty, but they were heavily taxed. Moreover, the Song Dynasty's involvement in commercial activities often relied on political power to monopolize the interests of the upper class, leaving merchants to share the pie at the bottom.

Both the Song and Yuan dynasties did not prohibit maritime trade and supported commerce, but the government monopolized various industries related to people's livelihoods. In fact, the government even directly participated in commerce such as navigation, silk, tea, porcelain, and wine.

In particular, during the Yuan Dynasty, not only the emperor, but also other feudal lords and local officials had their own "Ottosang".

These "intermediate merchants" not only controlled first-hand resources such as artisans and land, but they also participated in lending and tax farming.

This led to the emergence of a distorted social system, where behind the bustling commerce, farmers and the poor suffered immensely.

Therefore, after the Ming Dynasty was established, Zhu Yuanzhang's suppression of the merchant class was extremely brutal, and the light taxes were a necessary measure in the early Ming Dynasty.

However, he probably didn't expect that after the early Ming Dynasty, the power of merchants would resurface and have a greater impact on the government.

In the Yuan Dynasty, although the emperor was born with a light constitution, the corvée labor was too heavy. After all, developing commerce required a lot of manpower. Moreover, the Yellow River was not peaceful from the Yuan Dynasty onwards. Therefore, some later generations said that the Yuan Dynasty lost its rule because of flood control.

"I remember that the Single Whip Law allowed people to pay for corvée labor with money and grain."

Wei Guangde immediately said, "In that case, why not implement the land tax as set by Emperor Taizu, and instead treat the excess of ten million shi of tax grain as a silver difference paid by the people to offset corvée labor, so that the Ministry of Revenue can reduce the burden when apportioning corvée labor?"

When we were discussing the Single Whip Law, I suggested that the court should abolish the forced labor system and instead hire local people.

Therefore, the corvée silver should be distributed among the fields in various regions, and the people would no longer have to bear the burden of corvée labor.

Even now, the charitable loan program remains steadfast; only in this way can the burden on the people be alleviated.

Wei Guangde spoke up.

Later generations have said that Zhang Juzheng implemented the "Single Whip Law" which included taxes, corvée labor, and miscellaneous taxes, but this is not the case.

The Single Whip Law only included the natural tax, miscellaneous taxes, and some corvée labor in it; the poll tax and the corvée labor resulting from the poll tax still existed.

This is why it wasn't until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that the imperial court introduced the "equalization of poll tax and land tax," completely abolishing the poll tax and incorporating it into the land tax.

What Wei Guangde insisted on was incorporating the "land tax reform" promoted by Emperor Yongzheng into the system, so that the people could be completely freed from taxes and corvée labor, and that people without land would not pay taxes, while those with land and wealth would pay taxes.

Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei argued for a few moments, and Zhang Juzheng listened attentively.

In fact, when he first surveyed the land, he only considered making up for the missing amount, which is the so-called "the Ming Dynasty's land survey rules, which state that those who lost the amount should be surveyed, and those who were in full should be exempted from the survey."

As long as local governments can pay the full amount of grain tax, nothing else matters.

However, he did not expect that the land area would increase so much after the land survey, which would lead to disputes over whether to levy taxes based on the land area or to apportion the full amount.

Undoubtedly, he wanted the imperial court to be financially prosperous, so levying taxes on land area to expand the imperial court's revenue would be a good thing.

However, if we continue doing this, we're afraid there will be a lot of resistance from the officials.

Putting aside others, his teacher alone owned vast tracts of land, much of which were heavily taxed, and the taxes paid would amount to a considerable sum.

The land in Songjiang Prefecture was taxed at eight liters per mu, second only to the confiscated government land.

"Shan Dai proposed using the increased grain tax to offset the corvée labor, which could indeed reduce the burden on the people. If the poll tax were also included, then the people who lost their land would hardly have to pay taxes anymore."

After a moment's thought, Zhang Juzheng said, "The people who have lost their land are already destitute, so using grain taxes to offset corvée labor is a good solution."

"But what if the imperial court undertakes large-scale construction projects? Wouldn't they still have to impose corvée labor then?"

Zhang Siwei spoke up.

In the 1960s and 70s, the state also presided over the construction of a large number of projects, which involved mobilizing a large number of people. Although work points were awarded, it was actually similar to the corvée labor in ancient times.

At this time, whenever the imperial court had a major project, it would often conscript a large number of local people to work and solve the manpower problem.

“When large-scale construction projects are underway, the imperial court will still allocate funds to hire people to work.”

Everyone who does work should be paid.

The people truly suffer from corvée labor. If this matter is accomplished, the people of our Great Ming will never again suffer the calamity of families being ruined by corvée labor.

Wei Guangde spoke. (End of Chapter)