My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 621 The Worst Solution

A wealthy landowner in a county shouldn't even think about clearing out a farmer's land—one hundred acres of land costs several million coins, something even a nobleman with a fief of a thousand households couldn't easily come up with.

Even the most powerful and influential figures in a prefecture shouldn't dream of buying up entire tracts of land—thousands or tens of millions of coins are simply beyond the reach and means of powerful figures of that caliber.

Even the wealthiest person in the world, who can readily produce tens of millions of dollars, can only buy a few dozen farmers' fields at a time.

The world's top billionaires and big capitalists, after taking out all their liquid funds, could only manage to wipe out a few dozen farmers.

You call this land consolidation?

Not finished yet.

It's far from over.

Besides raising the threshold and cost of 'acquiring land', this exorbitant price of 50,000 yuan per mu can also significantly increase the difficulty for local powerful families to set up schemes against farmers at the bottom of society.

The reason is very simple.

It is not difficult for local powerful figures and corrupt officials to collude and use market means to reduce the value of a plot of land worth 10,000 coins per mu to 5,000 coins.
It is not difficult to force a farmer to face a fixed expense of around five thousand yuan due to a man-made accident.

The combination of these two factors—the powerful and the bureaucratic collusion to suppress land prices and then artificially create mandatory expenditures of less than 10,000 coins—forces farmers to sell one or two acres of land at a low price, which is basically not difficult to implement.

This model can even be played every few years.

Each time, farmers were forced to sell two or three acres of land, and it took decades or even two or three generations to completely wipe them out, turning them into tenant farmers—this is a true reflection of the bottom class that has repeatedly appeared in the feudal history of China.

But the price of 50,000 coins rendered everything worthless.

How to generate the fixed expenditure of 50,000 coins?
You should know that in the Han Dynasty today, even if someone is killed accidentally, as long as the victim's family is willing to mediate, the compensation will not exceed 50,000 coins!
If it were someone of lowly status, such as a wandering knight or a lazy bum, a life could be bought for ten thousand coins!
Against this backdrop, even if local powerful families colluded with officials and went to great lengths to force farmers to the point where they had no choice but to sell their land;

As a result, the farmer gritted his teeth and sold an acre of land, receiving 50,000 yuan in cash.

Fifty thousand coins!
What concept?
At today's grain prices, it's enough to buy about two thousand bushels of grain, enough to feed a family of five for ten years!

Even if we include other living expenses such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, and cloth, the 50,000 yuan for buying the land is enough to support a farming family for at least three years, even if they live off their savings.

The hundred acres of land bestowed by Emperor Taizu Gaozu would be enough to feed the people for three hundred years, even if they were never cultivated and they only lived off selling the land.

This is nothing compared to land annexation!

Three hundred years, and the Han Dynasty might have already perished...

Perhaps some people will say;
A mu of land costs 50,000 coins, which is unaffordable for landlords and powerful families. How could Liu Rong afford it?

Even if the Imperial Treasury had millions of coins lying around, how much land could Liu Rong buy at his rate of 50,000 coins per mu?
是；
According to the books, the current amount of money stored in the Imperial Treasury is about four million coins.

At a price of 50,000 coins per mu, a total of 800,000 mu of land could only be purchased.

Even if each household owns 100 mu of land, that would only amount to the property of 8,000 bankrupt farmers.

Compared to the massive population of 'five million households' in the Han Dynasty, the land corresponding to these eight thousand peasant households was clearly far from sufficient to support Liu Rong in implementing the so-called 'imperial land ownership system'.

But this is actually a misconception.

First of all, the price of 10,000 coins per mu is a high price only found in the Guanzhong Plain and the Weibei region, which is rich in water resources.

Apart from the fertile land in Weibei that costs 10,000 coins per mu, which is near Chang'an where every inch of land is extremely valuable, the land that costs tens of thousands of coins per mu is astonishing.

In other places—such as Guandong, and even in Liang, Qi, Chu, and Huai, which are located in the heart of the Central Plains—the price of land is mostly between three and four thousand coins per mu.

Prices are slightly higher in the Sichuan and Chongqing region, reaching up to 6,000.

In the south, the Changsha and Jingwu areas, as well as the Yan, Dai, and Zhao counties in the north, and the Beidi and Longyou counties, land was not selling for a good price.

—To this day, the Han dynasty still follows the border defense policy established by Emperor Gaozu: any household registered as a farmer who is willing to move to the northern border region as a family unit will be unconditionally granted 200 mu of land!

But nobody went.

Even if it were given away for free, no one would want it, so naturally Liu Rong didn't need to spend money to buy it.

Furthermore, the system of imperial control over the land is clearly not something that can be achieved in a short period of time.

Liu Rong can't force farmers to sell their land to him, can he?

Only when farmers genuinely need money and actively want to sell their land can Liu Rong sense their needs and offer a price to buy it.

This situation is clearly not something that all five million farmers in the country will encounter today.

If we assume that on average, one out of every thousand farming households needs to sell one mu of land to make money each year, then five million households would be equivalent to five thousand mu of land.

Five thousand acres of land, even if calculated at 50,000 coins per acre, would only amount to 250 million coins.

Today, the Han dynasty had five million peasant households and thirty million people.
Even though the poll tax was reduced again and again—from 120 coins per person per year set by Emperor Taizu, to 40 coins after Emperor Taizong Xiaowen reduced it, and then Liu Rong further reduced it by half to 20 coins.
The annual poll tax of twenty coins per person alone could bring Liu Rong's Imperial Treasury a poll tax revenue of six hundred million coins per year.

The annual tax was 600 million coins, and taking out 250 million of it—less than half of that—to buy up the land that farmers were forced to sell was no problem for Liu Rong at all.

As for the data model that on average, only one in a thousand households needs to sell land each year, and only one acre of land needs to be sold, is this accurate?
Based on usual, normal land prices, and the social operating model before Liu Rong's intervention, this is certainly inaccurate.

One mu per thousand households?
It's more than one mu per hundred households!

However, after Liu Rong, with his vast wealth and imperial power, came to an end with the goal of "imperial land ownership," it became unprofitable for landlords, powerful families, and local officials to create trouble and force farmers to sell their land.

Forcing farmers to sell their land would ultimately result in the land being sold to Liu Rong, so powerful figures and officials would naturally stop doing such a thankless task.

Considering that doing so would help Liu Rong accelerate the process of 'land imperial ownership', they would not only not force farmers to sell their land, but would even prevent them from doing so!

If we take this variable into account, the average annual figure of one acre of land sold by every thousand farmers is roughly the same.

—A thousand farming households, just a few thousand people;

In the present Han dynasty, even a small, ordinary county had a population of tens of thousands.

A village consists of several thousand people.

In a village, it is perfectly normal for one farming family each year to sell one mu of land to make a living—this is quite normal for the Han Dynasty, which is still in the late reign of Emperors Wen and Jing and is about to enter the prosperous era of Emperor Liu Rong.

As for the claim that he only buys 8,000 mu of land each year, when will Liu Rong be able to buy up all the land in the world and truly achieve imperial land ownership?
This brings us to Liu Rong's idea of ​​"land imperial ownership," his initial intentions, and the goals he wanted to achieve.

—The imperial control of land was not Liu Rong's ultimate goal. Liu Rong was not a wealthy landlord, nor did he intend to possess all the land in the world.
Liu Rong's ultimate goal was to curb land annexation.

The imperial system of land ownership was merely a means to achieve the goal of 'curbing land annexation,' and the final result.

In short: What Liu Rong wanted was to curb land consolidation.

As long as land annexation can be curbed, Liu Rong doesn't care whether or when a land monarchy can be established.

So, looking back at Liu Rong's behavioral logic and the likely development path, has Liu Rong achieved his goal?

first;

After Liu Rong, with 'land imperial ownership' as the core of his thinking, personally intervened to buy up the farmland sold by farmers, the bankrupt local tyrants and officials no longer forced farmers to sell their land.
Because there's no profit to be made doing this, or rather, Liu Rong has already taken all the profits.

As a result, landlords and powerful families no longer resorted to trickery and force to seize land, no longer set traps to force farmers to sell their land, and even forced self-cultivating farmers to go bankrupt and become tenant farmers.

Does this count as curbing land annexation?
Landlords, powerful figures, and corrupt officials can no longer buy land from farmers, nor do they have the incentive to force farmers to sell their land.

Even if this makes Liu Rong's land acquisition speed extremely slow, so what?

Liu Rong wished he couldn't buy it either, and that all the farmers in the world would refuse to sell their land!

If that's really the case—if ordinary people can hold onto and accept their own land, then what's the point of Liu Rong establishing a land imperial system?

Secondly;

After Liu Rong got involved, not only were farmers who originally didn't need to sell their land let off the hook by landlords, powerful figures, and corrupt officials who had no motivation, but even those farmers who really needed to sell their land and cash out to cope with the crisis received funds far exceeding market prices.

Farmers who used to need to sell several acres, or even more than ten acres, now only need to sell one acre.
Farmers who originally needed to sell all 100 acres of land now only need to sell a dozen acres, or even just a few acres.

Does this mean that farmers' ability to withstand risks has greatly increased and the probability of self-cultivating farmers going bankrupt has plummeted?

In a sense, could this be considered a way to curb land annexation?
—Most ordinary people no longer need to sell land. Even if a few people still need to sell land, they only need to sell a small amount of land to cope with most crises.
In summary: Han Dynasty farmers were generally no longer forced to sell their land;

They are generally able to hold onto their territory.

Could this be considered a measure to curb land annexation?
Only at the very end did Liu Rong establish his own 'land imperial system'.

Even in the future, one day, despite Liu Rong's painstaking efforts to protect them, the millions of farmers of the Han Dynasty will still sell off all the land they own.

But in the end, the land fell into Liu Rong's hands.

Liu Rong can still act as a last resort, lending back the land that the people sold to them so they can cultivate it again, allowing them to reclaim their land in another way.

Does this count as curbing land annexation?

Most importantly, this "lending land to farmers" policy was not something that Liu Rong could only begin after he finally achieved "imperial land ownership" and took over all the land in the world.

For example, today, a farmer sells one mu (approximately 0.16 acres) of his 100 mu of land to Liu Rong to cope with a sudden change in his family's financial situation.

Liu Rong spent tens of thousands of yuan to buy the property, and the farmer received the money, which helped his family overcome the crisis.

So, could Liu Rong return the land he just bought to its original owner free of charge so he could continue farming it?

The farmer originally owned 100 mu of land, but now he owns 99 mu. He borrowed 1 mu from Liu Rong, so he still owns 100 mu.

Although the ownership of one mu of the original one hundred mu of land changed to Emperor Liu Rong, the peasant family still maintained one hundred mu of arable land and could still obtain the output of one hundred mu of land every year.

In other words, apart from losing ownership of the land, the farming family was not affected in any other way.

In the future, as long as no similar changes occur, the remaining ninety-nine acres of land will not be sold, and even the acre of land sold to Liu Rong may be bought back one day.

Does this count as curbing land annexation?
At this point, Liu Rong's true goal and the vision he truly wanted to see become clear.

If he could, Liu Rong would rather not be able to buy even a single acre of land from farmers across the country!

Liu Rong would rather that all the farmers in the world not sell their land, but hold on tightly to their 100 mu of land and cultivate it steadily.

Although it's not very realistic, this is indeed Liu Rong's ideal.

Even if it's an unattainable ideal, or even a fantasy, it's still what Liu Rong most hopes to see.

Since this ideal cannot be achieved, let's settle for second best;

Since the common people will inevitably have to sell their land no matter what, then Liu Rong should buy it.

On the one hand, it was to prevent the land from being swallowed up by powerful and wealthy people, thereby arousing the 'hunger' for land among these privileged classes who control social resources;

On the other hand, the land that Liu Rong bought back could be returned to the original owner free of charge, instead of being rented out to the original owner and charged rent as is the case with ordinary landlords, which would exacerbate the bankruptcy of self-cultivating farmers.

Ultimately, and most undesirably for Liu Rong, the worst-case scenario is that everyone in the world will sell their land to him, eventually leading to an imperial system of land ownership.

Yes, that's right.

The last thing Liu Rong wanted to see in his idea of ​​a "local emperor with imperial authority" was that he would actually buy up all the land in the world.

Although this is the worst-case scenario, the one that can best support the fate of the Han Dynasty, it is still the last thing Liu Rong wanted to see.

—It might seem contradictory to say that one should promote the imperial ownership of land but not actually want to see it become imperial.

But if you put it another way, it becomes much easier to understand.

The worst outcome of using the "imperial ownership of land" system to curb land annexation was that all the land in the country was annexed by Liu Rong or a later emperor.

Liu Rong curbed land annexation, and the ideal outcome was that land annexation was completely eliminated.
Secondly, land consolidation is no longer 'irreversible', and the consolidated land can be returned to the farmers.

Thirdly, the pace of land consolidation has been slowed down.

The worst scenario is when land consolidation reaches its peak, leading to a state of 'universal harmony'.

The imperial land system was merely Liu Rong's last safeguard to prevent the final condition—that all land in the land be controlled by the privileged class and used to oppress and exploit the peasantry.

In other words, the worst possible solution.

(End of this chapter)