Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1058 Who Sues This Official ([-])

On the whole, the evaluation of some officials about the annexation of land by merchants is also quite interesting, "gradually thinking of being a landlord."

In fact, the officials in the court are not fools, they can still distinguish the difference between ownership and use rights.

That's why I said very ironically, "I'm gradually thinking of being a landlord." As soon as you contract the right to use, you also deserve to think of being a landlord?
I understand all the truth.

Things can't be done.

This is the current situation of Dashun.

It cannot be done according to the law.

It is said that a bunch of people stand behind the moral high ground.

This is the difficulty of salt reform in northern Jiangsu at this time.

Da Shun Law, Salt Law, Traditional Law, Customary Law, Confucian Morality, Imperial Power Will, these things are mixed together, conflicting with each other, and it is extremely sour.

Historically, when similar things came out of Jiangsu, they chose harmonious and thin mud, returned two-thirds of the land of the salt households, and let the land reclamation company spend a lot of money to finally get one-third.

Liu Yu made up his mind, not to mention two-thirds, he would not retreat at all.

If it comes up, it will be mixed with mud. When will the [-] square miles of cotton fields be delayed?Which investor in the back dares to invest money in land reclamation?

A few days later, the stipulated time came.

The merchants, who had been struggling with the land reclamation company before, were waiting there early.

Since Liu Yu believed that this matter could not be resolved normally, nor could it be justified, so he put on the biggest official airs since he became the Duke of the state.

The guard of honor was laid out, and the drums were played. In addition, he was originally leading the soldiers, and this time he also led the soldiers.

The ceremonial dignity of the court officials, coupled with the murderous spirit of the soldiers, pulled out the aura of a feudal aristocrat at once, and made these businessmen more clearly understand what is meant by "the difference between high and low" and "inequality". ", what is the status hierarchy system in feudal society.

The dealers kept kneeling there, waiting for Liu Yu, Lin Min and others to sit down, and then hurriedly saluted and kowtowed.

Liu Yu didn't laugh and laugh like usual, but asked pretendingly, "Why are you here?"

These dealers really don't know what to say.

Knowing that Liu Yu wanted to take private salt, he forced them to sell the contract, take the money and leave, and don't stay here in the future.

But at this time, if you directly talk about private salt, wouldn't it be self-inflicted?

No one spoke for a long time.

Fortunately, at this time, the people from the Reclamation Company came forward and said: "Master Hui Guo, Master Jiedushi. They are all local dealers, and they are here to negotiate with our company about selling them."

Liu Yu hummed, and immediately retorted: "Sell? Why is this grass yard yours? It's not yours, how can you sell it? Tomorrow you set up a stick in the middle of the big river and say that the river is yours. Why, can you sell the river?"

The dealers turned pale with fright, Liu Yu said again: "You don't understand the law, I am tolerant, but the matter must be explained."

"This land reclamation company is the right to use the land rented from the imperial court. The money they give you is just unemployment compensation for you."

"Sell the word, don't mention it in the future."

The dealer who was already shaking like a sieve felt relieved. For a moment, he even felt that the rumors were not credible. This Duke seemed to be quite talkative, and he didn't seem to be able to kill so many people at once.

But with such a change in his mind, Liu Yu said again: "The bills are all complete?"

"Not only must there be a ticket from the dealer, but also a proof of taking the class. Without this, it will be troublesome in the future, and the lawsuit will not be clear."

This time, a smart dealer finally came to his senses, and hastily raised the numerous contracts he was carrying above his head.

The entourage sent these contracts to Liu Yu. Liu Yu looked at them and handed them to Lin Min next to him.

Lin Min looked at these contracts. He himself is the political envoy of Lianghuai Salt, and his authentic professional counterpart.

Looking at these contracts, you can tell that this matter is troublesome.

In the hands of these dealers, not only the vouchers, but also the course completion stamps over the years.

The function of the voucher is as follows:

In the previous system, Yanhu was a state serf.Yanhu can receive utensils such as frying pans by virtue of the coupons. Iron is so expensive these days, and small farmers cannot afford these things.There are also some stoves, ash pits, pools, piers and so on made by the imperial court.

These things belong to the court.

As serfs of the imperial court, Yanhu had the right to use these things.

As an obligation, they must ensure that the salt produced in the coupons must be sold in a fixed market and not sold privately.

The vouchers in the hands of market merchants make the market merchants' status similar to that of serf contractors.

They hired serfs, one set of stoves and ash pits for each serf.

Marketers hire people to do these tasks and buy them identities, but it is in the hands of the marketers to receive the vouchers.

With this in hand, in fact, from a legal point of view, these kitchen households and kitchen households have already lost, and have already lost everything.

Another one, there are some things that can't be explained in detail.

The salt reform in the 45th year of Wanli prevented salt from entering the official warehouse directly, and salt merchants acted as middlemen.

The attitude of the court, how should I put it, as long as the money can be collected, it will be fine, and it will turn a blind eye in a daze.

This makes several large items actually provided by merchants.

For example, an iron plate has four corners, and one corner weighs five thousand catties. Is it made by ordinary people?
After 45 years of Wanli, in essence, the businessman made a report to the higher level, and the upper level approved it, and the businessman came to make it.This is an extra-large salt cooking tool, and it is also used to prevent illegal salt production. The bigger the better, the easier it is to check.

Since then, merchants have actually begun to acquiesce in entering the market.The controversy that happened in Dashun before was just that the matter had reached the point where it was impossible to pretend to be ignorant.

Another example is the mortgage repayment deed in these contracts.

No matter whether Lin Min or the local magistrate also understands.

[If the salt method of quality is not allowed].

Can be an official, but can't tell what is ownership and what is the right to use?What do you mean that the ownership can be sold, but the right to use cannot be sold in this way?
If it is really done according to the salt law, it is all illegal.

But most of the time, it's the default.

Because you judged this to be illegal today, all the salt households in Huainan will come to ask for it the next day, saying that what you sold is illegal, and please return the grass to them.

The officials of the Yan government knew that with Dashun's grass-roots management and administrative capabilities, it would take less than three years for the businessmen to leave the market and repeat the old scene of attracting and not salting.

From the side, the imperial court has no ability to plan for a rainy day at all.

It is precisely because the salt production controlled by the merchants after entering the market has reached a very high amount.

That's why there is a dispute between the two factions, whether to continue to maintain the strict stove household system of the previous dynasty, or to legally recognize the behavior of merchants to enter the market to make it justified.

Lin Min took a quick look at these bills and knew in his heart that once these bills were received, the land reclamation company could drive away all the salt households directly.

But from the perspective of salt law, it is illegal for merchants to collect debts as usury.

But the problem is that the businessman paid the discount tax on time for the reclaimed grass, and it has been paid for more than ten years.

In the current situation, even if future generations are well-informed, as long as they are not Fa-studiers, it may be difficult to understand.

Take Cao Dang as an example, the Salt Law stipulates that it cannot be sold.

In fact, the businessman bought the debt through lending and debt collection—only the legal 36% annual interest rate is required, assuming that the usury is not illegal.

And the officials acquiesced in this transaction and recognized that the contract was valid.

Then the businessman paid taxes for more than ten years.

Now theoretically the imperial court wants to take back the right to use the land. The land reclamation company has already paid the money for the imperial court's land, and has obtained the right to use the land from the imperial court, the owner of the land.

The money paid in addition is compensation to the user.

Now, the merchants who illegally bought grass and paid taxes all the year round agreed to the compensation.However, Shioto disagreed.

So, even if it is the law of the future, how should this matter be judged?
Therefore, after the chaos has become a mess, how to judge this matter now actually depends on the officials.

Officials have the final say and power of interpretation.

And if it depends on the officials, how can the officials decide if he, the Jiedu envoy of Jiangsu, and Liu Yu, the current state prince, sit here?
Continue to push down, more troublesome things are yet to come.

Now, what does it mean if the dealer and the land reclamation company signed a contract privately?
It means that those salt households can't get hanging hair.

It is impossible to give them a penny.

The land reclamation company bought the land with money, but it was the dealer who collected the money.So, those salt households, will the land reclamation company give them another sum of money?

He looked at it with a sad face for a while, and Liu Yu asked: "Master Lin, do you think these contracts and certificates of class payment can let the land reclamation company directly take over the land?"

Lin Min smiled wryly in his heart, knowing that he was in trouble.

This matter directly involved the entire Huainan salt merchant, and the Huainan salt merchant had a pen in his hand.

What Liu Yu wants to abolish is the Huainan Salt Industry.

Then the pens of the salt merchants will be sympathetic to the suffering of the salt households at this time, even though they didn't even look at it before.

If he wants to implement the emperor's will, it means directly breaking with the old salt merchant system and the gentry class in Huai'an and Yangzhou.

The opposite is standing directly on the moral high ground, seizing the property of the people, competing with the people for profit, and depriving the people of their property, these big hats must not be dropped.

"Duke, these contracts and bills are basically complete. But there, such as this grassy mortgage. How can I say that it is also against the rules of the salt law?"

"But the official has stamped it, which..."

He hesitated to make a statement, so Liu Yu accepted a few contracts, and said to the merchants below: "Since you have sold the contracts, you know what the consequences will be?"

"It's inconvenient to hold the cash, the land reclamation company will bill you directly, and you have gone to Songjiang Mansion to withdraw the money, so you can stay dormant here."

"Otherwise, I guess these salt households insist on eating your meat and skinning you."

"To put it bluntly, this property is neither yours nor Yanhu's. It's more like a collective. You sold the collective land and ran away with the money. Can the Yanhus not hate you?"

Although there was no concept of collective property at that time, in fact, this matter was indeed similar to a certain extent. After all, salt households relied on these means of production to survive, and these means of production did not belong to these merchants.

As soon as the deed in the dealer's hand was sold, he took the money and patted his ass and left. Who would pay those salt households?

Although, in theory, after the land reclamation company got these bills, Liu Yu could directly follow the example of the enclosure movement, let the army go up, and drive away the common people.

However, the people of Dashun are not as easy to bully as those farmers in England.

Moreover, this time, those who opposed the reform were the biggest supporters behind these salt households. Once a big incident happened, they would definitely react upon hearing the news.

To settle these salt households, only these bills and contracts are not enough.

If it is true that the bills are collected directly and the people are "evicted according to the law", then any place where market operators occupy a large area of ​​grass will be completely messed up.

This is tantamount to leaving some salt households with nothing overnight.

Give them a sum of money as compensation, and there is still a possibility that this matter can be resolved without too much bloodshed.No one can accept it if they don’t give a penny.

Be a small producer well, although you are poor, but at least you still have your own business.Overnight, small producers turned into pure proletarians, without any compensation, who can accept it?

After all, there is still a demonstration here to solve it. In the future, local officials in various places will be able to handle similar incidents conveniently, and the province will not even know how to judge.

"Let's do this, you businessmen who are slopping and renting fields, don't leave for the time being, just stay here, don't move around. If I am safe, you will be safe too."

"People from the wasteland reclamation company, go and talk to those salt households, and say that you must act according to the law and according to the contract, and order them to move out within two months."

"Don't conflict with them, just tell them that they have obtained the grassland contract. After telling them, quickly withdraw. Workers from all over the country are only working nearby for a few days, and don't go far away."

"Don't start a conflict, just send them a message first."

(End of this chapter)