Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 854
Compared with the Han dynasties in China, the Ming Dynasty has two major disadvantages. One is the huge clan burden, and the other is the unity of the family and the country, and the finances are not separated.

The unity of the family and the country is manifested in the fact that the emperor sent eunuchs to collect taxes everywhere, and the taxes went into the internal treasury, instead of being managed by the Ministry of Households in charge of the country's finances.

For this matter, the entire civil servant group, either for the country or for private interests, has been fighting against the inner court until the fall of the Chongzhen and Hongguang dynasties, the decline of imperial power, the awe-inspiring central government, and the dispatch of eunuchs to collect taxes by the inner court.

The burden of the clan is that the clan and vassals not only need the imperial court to support them with taxes, but also embezzle a large amount of private land.

Wang Yan said that the clan's dissatisfaction with him was related to the land.

"Your Highness, do you mean to exchange the vassal's land to Taiwan?" Wang Fuzhi couldn't help asking after hearing Wang Yan's words.

Wang Yan nodded, "After Mr. Su Ge reformed the clan, he stipulated that the title of the clan should be reduced by one level each generation. After Fengguo Lieutenant, the imperial court only kept the clan status and no longer paid salaries, and restricted the titles of princes and county princes and daughters. Those who exceed the quota will not be given Juelu, and the clan will be allowed to serve as officials or engage in fields such as scholars, agriculture, industry, and commerce. In the long run, the salary that the imperial court has to pay to the clan will inevitably be greatly reduced, and results will be seen within 20 years. This only solves one aspect of the problem, and the problem of suzerain vassal fiefs and non-payment of taxes has not been solved."

Yan Qiheng, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, stood up and said: "A few days ago, there was news from Zhejiang that a side branch of the Yue Fan wanted to take back the fief, and clashed with the local people, killing two people and seriously injuring more than 20 people. Limited, they took the previous jade certificates and title deeds to take back the fief, and caused troubles for the court everywhere!"

"I think the clan was dissatisfied when they saw that the court had liquidated the properties that the gentry had taken away by the Manchu Qing, and returned some of the land to the anti-Qing gentry instead of returning their fiefs, so they were dissatisfied. Tian." Shi Fang Fengnian, Chief of Chu Palace, sneered.

"That being said, these land deeds are in the hands of the clan after all, and those lands are indeed the fiefdoms and properties of the clan. It's not okay to let the common people occupy it like this without giving an explanation!" Zhu Cunshu, the king of Qin, is from the clan's mansion. Official, he has to speak for the clan.

"Why is there no explanation? Your Highness's strategy of exchanging land, the officials think it is good. It can avoid conflicts caused by land disputes, and it can give Zong and Vassal an explanation." Wang Fuzhi said.

If the land is in the hands of the suzerain and vassal, it is difficult for the household department to collect taxes, but if it is in the hands of the common people, and the common people have no title deeds, it is the land of the imperial court. The household department not only has tens of thousands of hectares of land, but also Renting seeds for the common people, collecting taxes, the life of the household department is simply not too easy, so Wang Fuzhi naturally wants to support it.

Zhu Cunshu's words don't carry much weight, but he represents the clan after all, and he has to consider the interests of the clan. In his eyes, Taiwan is a barren land. Changing the fiefdom to Taiwan is basically no different from exile.

"I'm afraid this is unfair! Taiwan has not yet been developed, how can the fields compare with those in Jiangnan and Huguang? The imperial court is stealing the assets of the clan."

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a large number of imperial clans of the Ming Dynasty fled, and the fiefs became unclaimed lands, which were embezzled by the Manchu nobles or allocated to refugees by the local government. Abandoned his family business in Jiangnan and other places.

Now that the Ming Dynasty recaptured Jiangnan, Nanyang and other places, there needs to be an explanation for how to deal with the land that originally belonged to the clan and gentry.

There is nothing to say about the clan's clan dying if they don't run away, but those gentry, like Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun and others, were originally from Jiangnan aristocratic families, but in order to fight against the Qing cause, not only their relatives died against the Qing, but their family property was also invaded by the Manchus , Now that they have fought back and recovered the old land, what should they do with the land that originally belonged to them?Should the court decide for them?

This is a major problem that plagues the Nanjing court. After all, these lands have been cultivated by others for many years, and there have even been resales several times in the middle. If they want to take them all back across the board, they will inevitably arouse public anger. The ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court can't say that after letting them throw away their homes and businesses to fight against the Qing Dynasty, they can't even get back the assets that originally belonged to them.

The Wang family of Hengyang is a wealthy family in Huguang and a big landlord. Wang Yan’s background determined that he represented the interests of the gentry. Therefore, after the recovery of Nanjing, the Nanjing court conducted a new investigation in the recovered land and invalidated all the land deeds issued by the Qing Dynasty. The Nanjing imperial court re-issued and took the opportunity to clear the land, take back part of the land under the name of the Manchu gentry, and return it to the anti-Qing gentry who held the title deed.

As for the land planted by refugees and retail investors, it will be put on hold for tentative consideration.

The imperial court safeguarded the interests of the anti-Qing gentry, but it has not done anything about the fiefs of the suzerains. This made many suzerains very dissatisfied. Many people returned to the fiefs and began to collect them by themselves Land requisitions resulted in fierce conflicts.

The small people are looking for profit, and some clans have entrusted the land. No one has planted it for a few years, and it has been abandoned. The small people have recultivated it.

From a legal point of view, these lands belonged to the clan, just like the gentry's land belonged to the gentry. It cannot be said that the owner escaped, and the family property was placed there, and whoever occupied it belonged to him.There will be no law, and the society will have no stable foundation.

However, the legal theory does not mean that it is reasonable. The clan of the Ming Dynasty did not make contributions to the imperial court, but enjoyed so much land and rights. Obviously, it was not beneficial to the whole world. It was unreasonable, and the law needed to be changed.

Since governing the country, Wang Yan has also realized that it is inevitable for the ruling class to enjoy privileges in the whole world, but this privilege must be limited. The more privileges enjoyed by the ruling class, the heavier the burden on the common people. After the speed exceeds the bearing capacity of the common people, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's generation will rise in droves.

Therefore, the ruling class must grasp this limit and not exceed it, then it depends on the ruling class, how to distribute this benefit within this limit, and in the Ming Dynasty, the clan undoubtedly accounted for the majority.

Some people say that gentry is not a thing, and indeed it is not a good thing, but the Ming Dynasty only recruited more than 300 Jinshi every three years. In the Ming Dynasty for more than 270 years, the total number of recruits was only about 8, while the number of clans in the late Ming Dynasty was more than 20 Ten thousand people, the benefits shared by the clan are much more than that of the gentry.

Whether the gentry in the Ming Dynasty had privileges, of course they did. The gentry did not pay taxes, but this did not pay taxes. The phenomenon of group corruption and mutual collusion is restricted and exempted only for the small heads, and the big head is the concealed and unreported land. This is a problem of official corruption, not a problem of the privileges of the gentry.

In all dynasties, the gentry had privileges, and the gentry in the Song Dynasty had limited exemptions, and they also had privileges. Without privileges, whoever tested their fame, who governed the country, and who would say "the book has its own golden house."

Yue Fei was born in an ordinary farming family. After becoming an official, his family had more than 2000 mu of land and became a big landlord. Han Shizhong even had tens of thousands of mu of land. However, the Song Dynasty operated relatively normally. This is a privilege enjoyed by the ruling class. Within this scale However, the Song Dynasty did not have the big burden of the clan of the Ming Dynasty.

The reality of the Ming Dynasty was that the Zhu family did not give enough benefits to the working gentry class. The officials’ salaries were pitifully small. common people.

As for the later generations boasting that the officials and gentry of the Manchu Dynasty paid food as a whole, there is actually nothing to brag about. Don’t forget the Eight Banners and the royal family of the Manchu Qing. Their prosperity was nothing but the benefits of the Han officials and gentry, so why did the gentry still become officials? "Greedy", in the end, the officials and gentry still transferred the burden to the common people, otherwise, where would the [-] snowflakes of the prefect a year come from? silver.

At this time, the cake placed in front of the entire Nanjing court was only that big. Wang Yan must give it to the officials and gentry who govern the country, not to the clan who has no contribution. If they occupy another piece, the common people will turn against each other again.

Wang Yan pondered for a while, waved his hands to tell them not to fight, and then said to Zhu Cunshu: "The imperial court wants to increase the salaries of officials this year, and the financial expenditure will inevitably increase in the future. If the clan wants to occupy a large area of ​​fiefdom, it will definitely not work if it does not pay taxes to the imperial court. Gu will explain to the clan today that the imperial court has the right to move the feudal clan. This time, it will not only move the feudal clan, but also collect taxes. The clan’s mansion will be demoted to common people, and then pay the three laws. Of course, the people who caused troubles will also be arrested and investigated together, and the imperial court will not protect anyone."

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(End of this chapter)