Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 117 Data is another eye and ear of the court! (Subscribe)
Zhu Yuanzhang's tone was extremely firm.

He admitted that some of what Xia Zhibai said made sense.

But forget about wanting him to give up the governing system that he had worked so hard to build.

And what does Xia Zhibai know?
Now that he knows some of the situation, he will naturally take precautions.

The emperor's heart is as solid as a rock.

Xia Zhibai was not surprised.

He also never thought of asking Zhu Yuanzhang to make changes.

Zhu Yuanzhang would not admit that he was wrong. It was simply unrealistic for an emperor who had made great achievements and looked down upon the world to admit that he was wrong and take the initiative to correct his mistakes.

His purpose was just to make Zhu Yuanzhang aware.

There is something wrong with the system he built.

Moreover, the system established by Zhu Yuanzhang was based on agriculture from beginning to end. In fact, the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was so disgusted with business was that he roughly believed that commerce would lead to a decrease in the population engaged in agriculture, which would in turn affect the overall supply of food and clothing in the world.

Therefore, he adhered to the tradition: emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.

They were even eager to drive all the merchants back to the fields.

As for why Xia Zhibai was able to realize so quickly that Zhu Yuanzhang was going to take action against merchants, in addition to the conversation with Guo Huan, and his certain understanding of history, it was more due to the decree issued by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early spring.

Since the tenth of the peasants began to develop ingenious skills, agriculture and sericulture have been abandoned. One farmer holding the hoe provides food for hundreds of families, one woman weaving provides clothing for hundreds of men.

Zhu Yuanzhang directly and explicitly stated that he wanted to ban commerce.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, the reason why the world is now lacking in wealth is that the "agriculture and sericulture industries are in decline". In order to solve the problem of neglecting the fundamentals and pursuing the trivial in society, he wants to ban commerce in the world, let the four classes of people stick to their own industries, and not allow them to eat idle food.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't consider at all that farming was not enough to support his family.

He only sees too many people doing business.

It has already affected people's normal food and clothing.

Xia Zhibai is currently engaged in business, so naturally he is opposed to the 'ban on business'.

Xia Zhibai did not continue the previous topic, but changed the subject directly and said: "Since Your Majesty does not agree, and I really don't know much about farming, maybe my understanding is inappropriate, but as an official doing business, I do know enough about business."

"Your Majesty has a wrong understanding of business."

"And this misconception has always been with your majesty."

"When your majesty first started the war, he always advocated 'respecting the root and eliminating the end', and firmly believed that this would ensure the long-term prosperity of the country."

"After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Your Majesty's attitude became more relaxed. You advocated 'reinforcing the basics and suppressing the secondary', promoting the development of agriculture and suppressing commerce, and then implementing policies of frugality and light taxation, so that 'farmers do not stop farming, women do not stop weaving, and idle people all work hard on the land', and then there are more producers and fewer users, so that the world can achieve full food and clothing, and accumulation and prosperity."

"But after more than a decade, Your Majesty has discovered that the wealth of the world has not increased."

“On the contrary, more and more people are doing business.”

"In your opinion, the large number of businessmen has seriously affected the livelihood of the people in Ming Dynasty, and changed your original idea to 'few producers, many users'. This is clearly competing with your majesty for profit, so your majesty has less tolerance for businessmen in his eyes."

"At the beginning of the year, they announced that they would ban business."

Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes slightly.

The disgust in his eyes was not concealed at all.

He just hates business.

He really couldn't understand why Xia Zhibai spoke for the businessmen. What was so good about businessmen?
They do not engage in production and only know how to exploit the people.

Such scourge should be completely eradicated from the world.

Zhu Yuanzhang said indifferently: "Merchant? Do you know what the first thing that comes to mind when we mention merchants?"

"I think of the ugly faces of those merchants who rushed into my house to collect taxes. I will always remember them and will never forget them."

"You have experienced too little to know the evil of businessmen."

"Do you think the businessmen you've been dealing with recently are real businessmen? Are they so friendly to everyone?"

"The reason they treat you like this is because you are an official of our Ming Dynasty, the number one scholar appointed by us. These people are afraid of you, so they are so kind to you. Without this identity, what would you be, Xia Zhibai?"

"These merchants will just eat you up."

"Have you ever seen people forced to sell their children by merchants? Have you ever seen honest farmers being forced to death by merchants? Have you ever seen people being forcibly driven out of their homes by merchants? There are even more disgusting and abominable things."

"We've all seen it."

“I’ve experienced it myself.”

"Do you think we don't know the benefits of doing business and how much money it can bring to our Ming Dynasty?"

"I know it better than any of you, and I know it better than any of you."

"But we don't want this dirty money."

“These businessmen are not allowed to earn money.”

"We want these merchants to stay at the bottom of society for their entire lives, to be humiliated and trampled upon by the people of the world. We want them to do the heaviest labor in the world, to work them to death, to make them regret becoming merchants for eternity, and to make their descendants the lowest class."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were red.

The hatred towards merchants has almost become a reality.

Xia Zhibai sighed in his heart; he could feel Zhu Yuanzhang's anger.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang's parents were the victims.

But as an emperor, as the ruler of the world, you cannot act so impulsively, and you cannot be so self-righteous.

Disregarding business will come at a heavy price.

Zhu Yuanzhang may have known that from the perspective of taxation, doing business is much better than farming.

But he didn't care at all.

He hated businessmen from the bottom of his heart and wanted to destroy business.

In order to avoid financial shortages after suppressing business, Zhu Yuanzhang also designed a series of policies to protect people's livelihood, aiming to ensure the normal operation of the Ming Dynasty's finances while emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.

Under Zhu Yuanzhang's management, it did live up to expectations.

However, from the perspective of taxation, there is no way to shake Zhu Yuanzhang's steel-like ideology.

Xia Zhibai shook his head and said, "Your Majesty's understanding of business is too shallow."

"And your majesty has always been contradictory."

“Economy is the foundation of politics.”

"Your Majesty is suppressing commerce and imposing a maritime ban on the coast."

"But at the same time, Your Majesty has long welcomed diplomatic tributes from countries at home and abroad, and implemented a tax-free policy for the additional goods brought into the country by the tribute countries. Not only that, but also many rewards were given to these tribute countries under Your Majesty's governance."

"Annan, Champa, Zhenla, Siam, Java, Ryukyu and more than 30 other countries frequently came to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute. It can be said that there was an endless flow of envoys and merchants. Under such circumstances, international trade should have flourished, but in fact, this prosperity was one-sided."

"Only in overseas countries."

"It does not bring any substantial benefits to the Ming Dynasty."

"Even the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of financial expenditure on this."

"On the one hand, they enthusiastically encouraged overseas countries to engage in tribute trade, while on the other hand, they severely cracked down on domestic residents engaging in overseas trade." "This contradictory phenomenon is rare in ancient and modern times."

"It comes down to it."

"Your Majesty does not understand economics, nor the politics behind economics."

"Your Majesty's view on business has always been superficial and crude, thinking that you can only get some commercial taxes from it. But is economic trade really that simple? Is it really only possible to get commercial taxes from it?"

"The answer is obvious."

"No."

"If I give other examples, Your Majesty will certainly disagree."

"I will then take the salt industry as an example."

"In the account book I presented to Your Majesty, there are actually a lot of data. To a certain extent, these data can be included in the local data. This is a kind of folk data different from the one Your Majesty has. By comparing the salt sales of a region in one year or consecutive years, we can make a certain assessment of the actual development of the region."

“Salt is essential for people’s lives.”

"If it is a good year, the people will be well-off and their lives will naturally improve to a certain extent, and the demand for salt will increase to a certain extent. In a bad year, the demand for salt will decrease significantly."

"By comparing the historical data of salt, we can get a certain understanding of local production."

"besides."

"Through the sales of salt, we can compare it with the data submitted by local governments. People need salt. If the sales of salt in a region are far higher than the national average, and compared with other regions with the same production conditions, the sales of salt are greater."

"This suggests that there may be hidden populations in these areas."

“Or maybe some places have a large population, but the sales of salt are obviously out of line with the norm.”

"That means there is a lot of smuggled salt in the area."

"In addition to making these obvious information comparisons, it can also be used to monitor local authorities and avoid being fooled and deceived by them."

"The information the court can get from the local areas is too scarce and too limited."

“Basically, there are only data submitted by local governments.”

"But if we use local enterprises like Kyoto Salt, it would be like the imperial court having an extra pair of eyes and an extra channel to get information, which would make it easier for the imperial court to understand the local situation and then have a horizontal comparison, which would also greatly reduce the situation where the imperial court is deceived by the local areas."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Xia Zhibai's words, his pupils shrank slightly.

There was a hint of surprise in his eyes.

What Xia Zhibai said was completely beyond his expectations, and it was also an angle he had never considered. Zhu Yuanzhang had always wanted to understand the grassroots, but the court's finances were insufficient, and there was no way to expand the scale of the government, so naturally there was no way to talk about it.

but now.

Xia Zhibai provides a completely new idea.

Refresh him.

Zhu Biao's pupils also trembled slightly, and his eyes were full of surprise.

He had already read the memorial submitted by Xia Zhibai, but actually did not take it too seriously. However, after Xia Zhibai's words, he was suddenly shocked to realize that this small account book could contain so much information.

even
It can serve as the eyes and ears of the imperial court to supervise the world.

Zhu Biao's mind focused.

Make a mental note of this idea.

I plan to summon some ministers when I have free time to discuss whether it is feasible.

Xia Zhibai looked serious and continued, "Salt is only one aspect. The court should have a comprehensive understanding of everything related to people's livelihood. However, in the current Ming Dynasty, the court only controls the output but has no idea about the sales situation. This is undoubtedly a huge supervision vacuum."

"besides."

"It's a road, or a post station."

"The Ming Dynasty's post stations are underutilized."

"Apart from military use, it was also used to deliver official orders, but it was basically not used for any civilian purposes."

“That’s also not advisable.”

“This is actually a huge waste of resources.”

"Post stations occupy the best roads in the world and are also the hubs of the world's circulation, but they only play a very small role as road hubs. If some post stations are converted into 'commercial', it will be a huge improvement for the world."

"It will also be a great help to the court."

"simplest."

"It will promote business prosperity."

"The post stations were controlled by the imperial court, which could issue 'tickets' like 'salt permits' and make profits from them. In addition, by counting the flow of goods from various places, the court could understand the freight situation, quantity, destination, etc. in each region, and thus have a general grasp of the economic situation in the world."

"At least we can have a rough estimate of the tax revenue."

“Avoid local tax evasion.”

"And the more prosperous the trade in goods, the more developed that region is."

"The court can take this opportunity to get a glimpse of the general situation in the local area. If the tax revenue collected by the court from these areas is very low, it can be basically determined that there is collusion between officials and businessmen, or that the local tax evasion is serious, and the court can take this opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation. Or if some officials write to the court and claim that the local area is well governed, but the economy is not developed, it also means that these officials are lying, misreporting, and exaggerating the truth."

"Data on business dealings."

"It's not just a number, it has to be considered in combination with the local situation."

"That is the most basic livelihood material."

"However, Your Majesty has ignored it from the beginning to the end, and even wanted to completely destroy this data to cut off one of the court's eyes and ears. But if there are no other channels to find out the real situation in the local area, the court can only rely on the local officials' self-reporting, except for sending officials to conduct secret visits or send people to investigate openly."

"But can Your Majesty trust the local officials?"

Can he be trusted?

Can't believe it.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s answer was extremely affirmative.

He had never trusted local officials and had always felt that they were deceiving him, but he just couldn't find evidence. But now Xia Zhibai provided an innovative idea that confused him for a moment.

Xia Zhibai stood tall.

He glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao who were looking around in confusion.

The contemporary use of data is too simple and too dismissive.

Zhu Yuanzhang, a farmer's boy who rose from obscurity, knew nothing about anything related to data.

He didn't have a chance to find out.

There is really no relevant channel.

In addition, his living environment had made Zhu Yuanzhang despise the so-called data from the bottom of his heart. Naturally, he did not understand the importance of data, let alone realize that data was the most direct and convenient thing for the court to control and understand the world.

Xia Zhibai looked up.

He stared at Zhu Yuanzhang and said calmly, "Your Majesty really doesn't understand economics."

(End of this chapter)