prosperous age

When Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng presented Feng Bao with the reform plans one by one, his eyebrows were visibly furrowed into a deep frown.

His wrinkles were deep, clearly indicating that he was extremely unsettled at that moment.

However, he was very composed and did not interrupt Zhang and Wei's narration.

After he had finished speaking, Feng Bao stared at Zhang Juzheng and said, "Uncle, this is not what you told me before."

"Cough cough."

Zhang Juzheng lowered his head slightly, then looked up and faced Feng Bao directly, saying, "Brother Shuanglin, I had thought things were too simple before."

But when they actually started implementing it, they discovered that the hardships of the people were so severe that even if the reforms were carried out according to the original Single Whip Law, it would only be a drop in the ocean, especially for the corvée labor.

If the problem cannot be solved, the people will still be in danger of losing their homes. That's why they discussed with Shandai how to help the people get out of this situation.

This method of allocating land area to the poll tax is ingenious; where there is land, there is wealth, and all wealth is grown from the land.

Look at the many migrant workers in the city, busy all day but barely making ends meet. If we were to collect poll tax from them, we would only force them to become vagrants.

All corvée labor will be incorporated into the land tax, and local miscellaneous taxes will also be included in the Single Whip Law. At that time, the people will only need to pay land rent to the landlords, and the government will not be able to levy taxes on the people. Life should be much better.

Landlords, by virtue of their family background, could avoid being harassed by cruel officials when interacting with the government, which was also beneficial to governance.

"The method is good, but if it is actually implemented, won't the gentry and powerful families cause an uproar? There will probably be a major upheaval in the officialdom of the capital."

Feng Bao did not mention those self-cultivating farmers, who were numerous in the early Ming Dynasty, but whose numbers had decreased by more than half by this time.

Especially in the Jiangnan region, during the Jiajing reign when Japanese pirates were rampant, many self-cultivating farmers sold their land to powerful families in order to cope with the government's levies, retaining only the right to cultivate it.

"If we do it this way, those gentry probably won't agree."

After thinking it over, Feng Bao shook his head. "Although the emperor has the final say in the court, the scholar-officials still need to help keep an eye on things, otherwise even the emperor will be too busy."

"By doing this, you're offending everyone."

"Indeed, the gentry have suffered losses in this matter, but the imperial court will not fail to provide compensation."

Now that the seas are open, the imperial court is also planning policies to encourage the development of industry and commerce. Although my uncle once said that land brings wealth, Shan Dai thought that was all ancient history.

In today's world, when it comes to wealth, can landlords surpass merchants, and can merchants surpass maritime traders?

Wei Guangde interjected.

Ultimately, policy is about balance. A policy should be acceptable to both sides, and it should not benefit one side while harming the other.

If this happens, then we need to find a way to compensate from other sources.

The losses and compensation must be based on what the court considers most advantageous.

The solution that Wei Guangde came up with was to liberate farmers from the tax and labor service system.

In the future, if farmers have no land to cultivate, they can go to the city to work as laborers, thus ensuring a continuous supply of human resources for the development of industry and commerce.

Industrial development can solve the employment problem of surplus rural population, thus ensuring social stability.

If the old system of taxes and corvée labor still existed, keeping people tied to the fields, it would be detrimental to economic development.

"Let them do business?"

Feng Bao's eyes lit up. Doing business was good. Goods entering and leaving the customs had to be taxed, and half of the customs duties went to the inner court. This was naturally a great thing.

"But what would they do? Buy land and collect rent, they can sit back and collect money without doing anything."

Feng Bao added with concern.

"So just make them feel that the land's output is too low, and that it's better to make money through business, isn't that enough?"

Dynastic changes are often caused by land annexation and the displacement of people.

Imagine a land of refugees, destitute and starving; it would be easy for them to ignite.

Every dynasty wanted to change this situation, but fundamentally, everyone was focused on that limited amount of land; how could anything be changed?

Wei Guangde began, "Once this is accomplished, it will shift the gentry's attention from farming to commerce. If the court appropriately favors self-cultivating farmers, while I dare not say the dynasty will last forever, there is still a chance to create a prosperous dynasty that lasts for over three hundred years."

"Be prudent in lending and cautious in speaking."

As soon as Wei Guangde finished speaking, Zhang Juzheng immediately said urgently.

"Don't say that again. I know what you're thinking. No one else but the three of us knows about this."

Feng Bao also spoke up.

Wei Guangde was quite dismissive of their caution.

If the emperor were the Jiajing Emperor, he would never have dared to say such a thing.

But now it is the Wanli Emperor. Although Zhu Yijun's temperament is still unsettled, after so many years of teaching, he still has depth of insight and will not be fooled by superficial words.

Although Wei Guangde had not explicitly said this to the young emperor before, his meaning had already been revealed.

Wei Guangde once gave Zhu Yijun a special assignment: to calculate the duration of successive dynasties.

The young emperor consulted ancient texts and concluded that: Qin Dynasty, 16 years; Western Han Dynasty, 210 years; Eastern Han Dynasty, 195 years; Three Kingdoms, 60 years; Western Jin Dynasty, 36 years; Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, 264 years; Sui Dynasty, 37 years; Tang Dynasty, 289 years; Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, 53 years; Northern Song Dynasty, 167 years; Southern Song Dynasty, 152 years; Yuan Dynasty, 97 years.

Excluding chaotic dynasties, no unified dynasty lasted more than three hundred years.

The closest dynasty to this was the Tang Dynasty, but it was essentially defunct for the last ten years or so.

When this conclusion was reached, the young emperor Zhu Yijun was quite startled.

Yes, I was scared.

The Ming Dynasty has been established for 210 years. According to this pattern, wouldn't it have at most another 8 or 90 years?

The young emperor is still young and can reign for several more decades. But if we consider the future, by the time his grandsons are born, they may be rulers who bring about the downfall of their kingdoms.

No one cares more about the fate of the nation than the emperor, and in fact, Zhu Yijun was already considering this issue at that time.

Both the Tianqi and Chongzhen Emperors were sons of Emperor Guangzong, and were indeed grandsons of Zhu Yijun.

Whether Emperor Wanli was aware of this problem in history is unknown to Wei Guangde, but judging from the fact that Emperor Wanli emptied the Changying Treasury of the Court of Imperial Stud and put it into the imperial treasury to become the emperor's private money, he was somewhat prepared.

The money was kept in the imperial treasury, so the emperor could use it at will.

However, his excessive bestowal of gifts upon the Prince of Fu was one of the indirect reasons for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, which is truly hard to understand.

In fact, Emperor Wanli left Emperor Guangzong and Emperor Tianqi with a total of 20 million taels of silver in the imperial treasury, which is why Emperor Guangzong was able to come up with 2645 million taels of silver from the imperial treasury by the sixth year of Emperor Tianqi's reign.

As for the record of six million taels of silver in Emperor Wanli's private treasury in the History of Ming, it is possible that the remaining hoarded silver was omitted as part of the Changying Treasury.

Anyway, Zhu Yijun is now somewhat aware of this problem, and when he asked Wei Guangde for advice, Wei Guangde's answer was "Change, drastically change."

This was something Wei Guangde did three years ago when Zhang Juzheng was planning a nationwide land survey, in an attempt to make the young emperor realize the urgency of the situation.

However, Wei Guangde didn't say anything more under these circumstances.

"How did your issue with the imperial clan get involved again?" Feng Bao then looked at them and asked with some suspicion.

Zhang Juzheng also provided an explanation: after the land survey, the court did not intend to continue the policy of collecting 2950 million shi of grain tax annually set by Emperor Taizu, but instead collected taxes according to the land tax set by Emperor Taizu, which led to a sharp increase in the national treasury.

With increased income, members of the imperial clan will inevitably challenge the government's stipends.

Moreover, since the right to impose levies on local governments has been revoked, in order to maintain local stability, some benefits must be considered for the local governments.

One measure was to combine miscellaneous taxes and corvée labor into the Single Whip Law, place local officials under the management of the Ministry of Personnel and pay them salaries, and increase the salaries of officials by setting salaries for those with honorary titles and ranks of nobility. This was equivalent to increasing the salaries of officials, but without violating the salary system established by Emperor Taizu.

As for the inclusion of the poll tax, Zhang Juzheng stated that it was a move by the cabinet to enhance the prestige of the young emperor.

"Let the population grow, and taxes will never be increased?"

Upon hearing the latest population statistics of the dynasty, which showed a population of over 90 million instead of nearly 60 million, Feng Bao couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.

It should be noted that in the past, corvée labor and poll tax were left to the local areas.

The reported population was less than 60 million, just over 50 million, but in reality it was 90 million.

Although the male tax is mainly levied on males, it can be used to estimate the number of males who are subject to taxation, which is definitely much higher than the reported number.

Thinking that the money had been embezzled by local officials in the past, Feng Bao couldn't help but feel a burning rage.

"If the poll tax were incorporated into the land tax, how much revenue would the dynasty generate annually?"

Although the population is 90 million, after deducting tax-exempt individuals such as women, children, the elderly, military households, gentry, nobles, monks, and Taoist priests, the remaining total will not be small, certainly around 20 to 30 million.

Thinking about the poll tax set by the Ming Dynasty, which was seven qian per adult male per year, how much silver that must have been!

Of course, this is just the number they calculated while sitting here; the officials below could not actually collect that many.

The household registration system of the Ming Dynasty made it very difficult to separate households.

Therefore, after two hundred years of reproduction, many "households" that originally had only a few people in the Hongwu era may now have dozens or even hundreds of people under their name.

When they reported the population to the government, they certainly wouldn't report the truth. Instead, they would bribe the officials in charge, making the population figure 60-70%, and then the poll tax would be divided among them.

Among them, there were inevitably those who were willing to perform corvée labor, such as some light corvée labor, like carrying sedan chairs for officials or guarding gates, in which they could be exempted from the poll tax.

After all, the poll tax in the Ming Dynasty was actually deducted from the corvée labor service.

When an official reaches a certain rank, the government will provide sedan chair bearers, either two or four, or they can hire them themselves at a cost of silver.

Wei Guangde always used silver, and his family had people to do these things. But when some officials from small families took office, they didn't have enough manpower, so they had to use these people who were serving in the military as servants.

In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, this simple method of apportionment caused a stir, leaving officials embarrassed and disgraced, as each household had different circumstances.

Some wealthy families found it easy to share the money, but for poor clansmen, it was extremely difficult. As a result, internal conflicts erupted, and those involved all ended up suffering the consequences.

Therefore, in the later stages, when allocating the tax burden, the distribution of family wealth was also added.

It was roughly a 40/60 split. Forty percent of the stipend was directly distributed per person, and the remaining portion was further divided according to each family's financial resources, with the wealthy contributing more and the poor contributing less. This was also considered a form of assistance policy within the clan.

In this situation, the status of clan chiefs and village chiefs is also elevated, and ultimately, the poll tax is reduced.

Many of the hidden households in the Ming Dynasty were actually located here.

The so-called hidden households do not actually hide in the mountains, but are actually nearby, only they are not recorded in official documents.

It is said that the practice of hiding one's home is prevalent in the Jiangnan region, with some places even reaching a ratio of ten to one.

"There should be tens of millions of taels, but from now on the court can no longer conscript laborers. Any major construction projects in the future will have to be funded from this money."

Therefore, after the Single Whip Law was implemented, it was best to record land tax and poll tax separately for ease of income and expenditure.

Wei Guangde spoke up.

When Zhang Juzheng reformed the system, he only incorporated some of the corvée labor into the Single Whip Law. Even so, within two years, he left the Ming Dynasty with a surplus of three million taels of silver.

This does not include the portion of the silver involved in the performance evaluation system and the reorganization of the post stations, which was previously part of the Taipusi Changyingku (the Imperial Stud's Treasury).

During the Jiajing reign, the annual surplus of the Changying Treasury was about 160,000 taels, but by the early Wanli reign, it had increased to more than 400,000 taels. This surplus included the silver saved from horse prices due to the reduced losses of warhorses caused by the decrease in border wars, as well as the silver left over from the reorganization of the post stations.

During the Wanli reign, there were fewer wars and less loss of warhorses. It is said that the Changying Treasury accumulated tens of millions of taels of silver in twenty years, bringing the total amount of silver in the Changying Treasury of the Imperial Stud to more than 20 million taels.

Later generations said that Zhang Juzheng's reforms resulted in a fiscal surplus of 10 million taels for the Ming Dynasty. Of this, about 5 million taels were actually surplus silver in the treasury. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Revenue's treasury had more than 7 million taels of silver in stock, with more than 3 million taels due for expenditure and a surplus of more than 3 million taels.

In just two years, the government not only achieved a balance between income and expenditure and made up for the deficit, but also had a surplus of more than three million taels of silver. This shows how high the government's actual income was after the corvée labor was incorporated into the land tax.

Prior to this, corvée labor was considered local revenue and not paid to the imperial court.

Upon hearing Wei Guangde reveal the figure of ten million taels of silver, Zhang Juzheng was fine, as he had already calculated it long ago, or rather, the cabinet ministers had already done so. However, Feng Bao's face turned red.

Well, the fiscal deficit problem that had plagued the Ming Dynasty for decades seemed to be completely resolved after the Single Whip Law reform.

Not only that, but there is also a surplus of several million taels of silver.

The Ministry of Revenue's empty treasury will soon be replenished again thanks to this income.

"Brother Shuanglin, although our revenue has increased by tens of millions of taels, don't forget that there are still expenses."

For those people, this was blatant robbery.

Wei Guangde reminded him.

"hiss
Now I finally understand what it means to be a clean magistrate for three years and earn 100,000 taels of silver. Haha.
There will definitely be no problem with bringing local officials into the Ministry of Personnel and having them receive salaries from the imperial court, and there will also be no problem with increasing the salaries of officials.

Will half of this silver be left?

Feng Bao asked.

There were over a thousand government offices in the Ming Dynasty, including prefectures, counties, and other administrative units, with varying numbers of officials, but the total number of civil servants was probably less than 200,000.

Based on an annual income of twenty to thirty taels of silver, Feng Bao estimated that he could save four to five million taels of silver.

"Not much."

Zhang Juzheng pondered for a moment before answering.

"I know why you wanted to settle the issue of the imperial clan in advance; it's because you're afraid they'll cause trouble."

"That's true. With the imperial court's revenue increasing so much, they're bound to cause trouble."

Feng Bao lowered his head and pondered for a while before looking up and saying, "This matter is too important for me to answer."

After you report to the palace tomorrow, I estimate that the Emperor and the two Empress Dowagers will summon you again. That will be the crucial moment.

Don't worry, I will definitely stand with the Cabinet.

"With this matter accomplished, our Great Ming will have nothing to worry about."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde exchanged a glance and nodded slightly. (End of Chapter)