Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 659 Concerning the Banning of Agricultural Taxes and the Control of Local Governments
Among the courtiers, especially important ministers, there are still some officials who have received Confucian education.

Therefore, when Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian convened a court meeting to tell the officials of the Ming Dynasty what he was worried about, many of the officials were shocked and did not know what to say.

In the past Ming dynasty, most of the officials put forward remonstrance and the emperor adopted it. The crisis was also discovered by the officials and they remonstrated with the emperor.

But now it was Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty who first realized the crisis and proposed to inform the officials below, and the officials were naturally a little caught off guard.

What's more, these officials educated by Confucianism have always been relatively short-sighted or have no habit of active thinking. What they can do is to follow the will of the sages or the sages to maintain the current rule, but let them plan ahead and predict the future through the current phenomenon Things are a little more difficult.

Not everyone is Zhuge Liang, and he knows that the world will be three points before he comes out of the mountain.

Zhang Huangyan and other courtiers really didn't think that there would be such a big crisis lurking in the Ming Dynasty. From their point of view, some chaos in the empire is a common occurrence.

But when Zhu Youjian spoke, Zhang Huangyan and other courtiers suddenly realized that they were at a loss, and handed over their hands in front of the imperial court: "Your Majesty, please show me your stupidity."

Zhu Youjian was a little speechless. He had to admit that most of the officials in front of him were old-style Confucian bureaucrats. They only knew how to collect money and follow their own instructions. Someone who proposes to change the entire political system.

Zhu Youjian didn't know if they were afraid of themselves, afraid that they would be executed if they said something wrong, or if they were really educated by Confucianism and didn't take the initiative to forge ahead and change their thinking habits.

"I didn't order you to do anything. You are all cabinet ministers who are in charge of Ming's taxation, appointment and dismissal of officials, financial appropriation, construction and other powers. I want you to think about how to prevent this crisis from happening together with me. , so that these conflicts that have arisen can be resolved, how to find a way to balance, this world is not only mine, but also yours, it belongs to the whole world, and now we are going to manage this world, we have to find a way to manage it well."

Zhu Youjian said and said: "Let's talk about the north and the outside of the customs first. These places are the largest areas under the rule of our Ming Dynasty. Now there are a large number of self-cultivating farmers or farmers who contract the land of Zhenhuangzhuang. They support our Ming Dynasty. Most of the food sources and agricultural tax revenue, this part of the agricultural tax revenue accounts for what percentage of Daming's national tax."

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this part of the agricultural tax revenue is less than [-]% of the imperial national tax. Because most of the agricultural income is concentrated in the Huangzhuang and business groups and the low tax rate of the imperial court, this part of the proportion is not high. With the development of industry and commerce in this part of the area and The exploitation of low-level officials, based on my estimates, will be reduced to less than [-]% in three to five years."

At this time, Zhang Du, Minister of the Ministry of Finance, stood up and replied that he was a relatively young official who had studied for a year in the Qianfa Department of the Imperial University of the Ming Dynasty. famous.

"With the extension of the imperial rule and the deepening of officials' negligence, there will definitely be more and more officials in these places. In the past, one government with two hundred full-time workers may become one government with two hundred full-time workers and [-] white workers (temporary workers) , These people are definitely going to exploit the people, and they are also the most direct factor that may lead to the bankruptcy of the owner farmers, including the employees of Zhenhuangzhuang, what if the agricultural tax of these people is directly exempted and the rent of tenant farmers in Huangzhuang is exempted?"

Zhu Youjian said and said: "In this way, local officials will have no reason to exploit farmers, and self-cultivating farmers will also be protected. Their income will also increase, and their consumption capacity will also increase. This will promote the development of Ming's industry and commerce, and instead increase Daming's tax revenue. There will not be civil uprisings in a hundred years, and the speed of land annexation will also slow down, reducing the possibility of self-cultivating farmers selling their land.”

"If your Majesty's words are implemented, the imperial court will be damaged, but it will indeed benefit the people, but the gentry and rich people in the north will also benefit from it, and they will be more enthusiastic about buying land, causing farmers to leave the land. "

Zhang Huangyan, the chief assistant of the cabinet, replied at this time.

"If there is no tax exemption, it will not be able to prevent the gentry and rich people from annexing land resources. It is a natural law that the strong will become stronger. This cannot be stopped, but if the court sacrifices this part of the interest, it can at least slow down the process of making the self-cultivating farmers go bankrupt. Even if there is a change, the peasants will not hate the court, and our Ming court has not received any profit from them."

Zhu Youjian said this, and then said: "But if this is the case, most of the farmers will still leave the land. We can look at the situation in the south of the Yangtze River. The commercial development in the south of the Yangtze River has attracted a large number of surrounding farmers to the city to become workers, and even farmers. They left voluntarily, and the surrounding villages were deserted. It can be seen that as long as we continue to develop industry and commerce, we can digest these farmers who have left the land, so our court still needs to attach importance to the development of industry and commerce.”

"What Your Majesty said is very true. I have ordered the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Imperial Economic Reform Committee to plan to continue implementing low-tax zones in the north and outside the customs, so as to attract merchants."

After Zhang Huangyan said this, Zhu Youjian nodded and said:
"The second is the problem in the Jiangnan area. I went to Nanjing and saw a lot of problems. First of all, the lowly officials are too much!
Wanton abuse of your power, as an administrative official, you impose various orders on merchants at will, and even lock merchants at will, in order to exploit the middle and lower merchants. The upper merchants also complain a lot, saying that you have raised taxes in Jiangnan , and even require that first-class citizens must be given priority in hiring, which increases their business costs and reduces their profits, and they have to be transferred to places outside the customs or even overseas. "

"Your Majesty, I admit that local officials are collecting too much money now, but if they don't collect money from merchants, they have to collect money from citizens. Citizens are first-class citizens. Naturally, they can't go too far with the protection of the imperial court, and there are no merchants to find a reason. , naturally collect money from merchants.”

At this time, Wen Chushi, Minister of the Organization Department, stood up and said.

"It can't be too much, it can't be unrestrained, it can't be uncontrolled! The middle and lower class merchants are the foundation of Ming's business. They bear most of the taxes and the employment of the citizens of Ming. It's not you!"

Zhu Youjian yelled loudly, and then sat down calmly again: "Okay, the point today is not to say how hateful these officials are, but how to protect these businessmen and prevent the officials below from exploiting too much. Gotta put a magic spell on them."

"Let's take the incident in Yingtianfu where Yin Tianfu ordered the establishment of a license plate as an example. The merchants had already reported to the local industrial and commercial office for a license at the beginning of opening the shop, workshop and factory company. Why would there be another license fee? Speaking of which, who made this order, was it from your cabinet, or was it Yin Tian Fu Yin's own whim?"

　there will be another chapter

　　
　
(End of this chapter)