Xinshun 1730

Chapter 477
Under the vassal system, before the Great Famine, all Japanese vassals tried different changes within the framework, trying to reverse the financial deficit.

There are those who encourage consumption to stimulate production, those who specialize in monopoly money-making, those who take the lead in frugal feudal lords who only eat rice dumplings, those who abolish gold and silver and forcibly issue banknotes, and those who want to reduce the population and ensure that small farmers do not become fragmented.

Overall, it was a failure.In a great famine, except Date's Sendai, all the rest returned to their prototypes.The Sendai domain is responsible for 60 koku and enjoys the benefits of 200 million koku. They also have copper mines to cast their own coins, abalone and sea cucumber, etc. are also the main exporters of Nagasaki. It didn't affect that, it really doesn't need any policy.If you don't die, you will generally have no financial problems.

Liu Yu didn't like the reform ideas of these people. Many of them were not even as good as tinkerers, but at this time, they were full of praise for Masaoku Abe.

Because Abe Masaoku became the new Osaka Castle after Ota Ziharu was "taken" to commit suicide, and it seemed that he was going to take pictures of customs affairs temporarily. Obviously, he will definitely be called the center of the shogunate in the future.

Such people will have great influence on future Japanese policies.

After Abe Zhengfu finished speaking, Liu Yu first showed a shocked expression, then restrained himself, and praised: "Listening to your words is better than reading ten years of books. The ancients said: If you hear the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening! I see Japan Most of the governance of the feudal lords treats the head and feet when the head hurts, but Abe-kun's methods have the idea of ​​​​treating the root cause."

"The population is increasing day by day, but the land does not increase. Food comes from the land, and the land does not increase, but the number of people increases. If people do not eat, they will be hungry. If there are too many people, there is not enough food to eat. Isn't this the root of the disaster?"

"There are too many sons to divide the land, the land is fragmented, and it is difficult to have surplus food. But if there is famine, they cannot survive, so they have to mortgage the land to wealthy merchants and peasants. The foundation of the Wu family system is the land distribution system. Wouldn't this destroy the foundation?"

"I look at the politics of all countries, and there is no one who is not like this."

""Zuo Zhuan" says: Yao, the minister of Shun, was in the four gates, and there were four evil clans, Chaos, Qiongqi, Wuwu, and Taotie. Looking at it now, I am afraid that these four evils are still there."

"If the population increases day by day, chaos, Qiongqi, 梼杌, and gluttony will turn into wars, famines, plagues, and turmoil, so as to control the population to a certain number."

This was talking to the Japanese, and at a time when the ban on Catholicism was very strong, Liu Yu couldn't use the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" as a metaphor, so he had to use the four evil men of Shunliu.

Anyway, there are four, not too much.

He told the emperor in the imperial court that the Academy of Sciences might increase the yield per mu by four to five hundred catties, or even seven to eight hundred catties, and vigorously immigrate to land reclamation; at the same time, he advocated Malthus's ideas in Japan, and incidentally called Malthus's apocalypse Localization of the Four Horsemen.

Abe Masaoku has heard Tokugawa Yoshimune's warning, don't believe everything Liu Yu says, especially what he praises, you must think carefully about the evil hidden in it.

But at this time, the theory of the four evils made Abe Masaoku feel like a bosom friend in the high mountains and flowing waters.

Especially with regard to the judgment that "the foundation of the stability of the samurai system is land rather than population, as long as the population can ensure that the land can be cultivated", it is more like saying what he has always wanted to say.

And the theory of the four evils made Masaoku Abe feel that he seemed to feel the truth of others, and finally figured out the origin of war, famine and turmoil.

Since the Warring States Period, the population of Japan has indeed increased.

But today, it has stopped. It should be said that Japan's population is a wonderful flower in the world in the 18th and 19th centuries.Independent countries all over the world are experiencing a population explosion, but Japan has always been in a straight line. After enjoying the famine, it is completely stable.

Unlike France, which was poisoned by Malthus in the legend, Japan's population is stable, and there are special reasons for it.

The area of ​​France is about the same as that of Sichuan Province, slightly larger.

However, its arable land area plus pasture area is close to 5000 million hectares, which is equivalent to 2000 million city mu, which is almost equivalent to the total number of acres of land in the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty.At this time, the population was comparable to that of Japan, [-] million people.

The owner farmers in France, the owner farmers in Dashun, and the owner farmers in Japan are not the same concept at this time.Just like after the Russian Revolution, when the division was made, the concept of poor peasants was that they "only" owned 46 acres of land equivalent to a city mu; while the French self-cultivators at this time can indeed achieve "one pot for each family during the festival." Chicken", so the French are too lazy to immigrate overseas, and they won't be like the British and Irish, who can't live and go overseas.

France is also a primogeniture system. After the legal revolution, the primogeniture system is an "old system of feudal society". It is necessary to get rid of old ideas, old customs, old systems, and old habits, so the law of equal inheritance is implemented.

The people of Dashun are naturally familiar with it. The father is gone and the sons are separated, but there is no such thing as the elder son taking all the land, at most it is just occupying the ancestral house.Even the big landlords are born from generation to generation.

The French people are used to the good life of homesteaders, and they don't want their children to share the inheritance and divide the land into small pieces, so that the descendants will become poorer and poorer, so they spontaneously choose to have fewer children.

Japan is... even if the law of primogeniture, the inherited land may not be able to catch up with the land allocated to each son of the law of equal inheritance in France.

Under such circumstances, the entire social atmosphere almost spontaneously changes towards fewer births. Infant drowning, throwing into temples, abortions, etc., generally only give birth to two and then fall down.

Dashun’s side is to "catch seedlings and expand business", "reclamation in Mengmeng and Liao", "walking to the west entrance", "traveling in the whale sea", "running to the western regions", "going to Nanyang", "traveling into Taiwan", there are always places to go go.

Japan really has nowhere to go now, and there is no foresight to know that one day the yield per mu will increase sharply with the support of chemical fertilizers and improved water conservancy. At this time, the theory of "four evils" is only based on the background of the times at this time. That really couldn't be more true.

Besides, it's all the meat from the mother's belly, raised by the parents, the eldest son inherits the family business, and the remaining son works for the eldest son. It's really not a good feeling to be a father and mother.

The most important thing is the taxation issue. Since the taxation is based on the land, Shi Gao will determine it after the land inspection, so it seems useless to have such a large population.

The labor limit of self-cultivating farmers in the Iron Age was [-] mu per capita, and if fallow land and livestock pastures were counted, the per household limit was about [-] mu.

Japan is still far from this limit. In this case, in Masaoku Abe's view, what's the use of having so many people?

If there are more people, there will be more food to eat, and if the tribute remains the same, one will have to pay.

The land was demolished and fragmented, and there was a slight famine, and the peasants couldn't bear it and went bankrupt directly, so they had to ask the merchants for loans and mortgage the land, leaving them with nothing.

Under the samurai system, of course the samurai did not like middlemen. They hoped to directly govern the people instead of letting the land go through the hands of rich merchants and farmers.

This is the "national foundation" and must be observed.

Liu Yu was thinking of fooling around, and Abe Masaoku himself had the idea of ​​controlling the population, so he was praised by Liu Yu, so he quickly approved of Liu Yu's statement.

Although there is a trace of vigilance in my heart, but more I agree with the first half of the sentence of "Liu Yu's words must be believed and doubted" said by Tokugawa Yoshimune, so naturally only "must believe" is left.

"China is worthy of being a big country. Liu Jun's words also made me see the sun as if I saw the sun through the clouds. This is the first time I have heard of the theory of the four evils."

Liu Yu said with a smile: "I was also inspired by Abe-kun to talk about this. The ancients said that if three people walk together, there must be my teacher. Abe-kun's various administrations in Fukuyama have inspired me to think like this."

"The situation in Japan is like this. Wealth is taken from the remaining land. If one acre of land is one stone of rice, five dou will go to the public and five dou will go to the people."

"If there is one race, the five buckets of rice are enough to eat; if there are two races, the five buckets of rice need to be mixed with radishes and sweet potatoes; if there are three races, you can only ask the feudal lord to reduce or exempt taxes hungry."

"But the feudal lord and the shogunate collect taxes based on the land area, not the population. Is there any difference between one person, two people, or three people?"

"Furthermore, if the shogunate and the feudal lords provide relief, the people who should have starved to death survived. They survived and gave birth to children. There are more, poorer, more miserable, and less land per capita. This is against the law of heaven."

"Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and treat everything as a dog. The way of heaven is to make up for what is lacking. The more people are relieved, the more miserable and poorer they will be."

"Conversely, if the people are not relieved, the redundant people will starve to death if they should, and those who should not starve to death will not starve to death. In this way, it can be guaranteed that the 'four evils' are harmful every year, but not every year. Great. A few deaths in Hiroshima today, and a few deaths in Fukuyama tomorrow, are nothing more than a feudal affair and will not shake the whole country."

"If we continue to rescue, on a certain day, the harm of the 'four evils' accumulated for decades will all explode, how will we deal with it?"

Very reactionary words, said in front of Masao Abe, Masao Abe did not feel too surprised.

It is obvious that everyone is a "noble". This nobleman may talk about benevolence and righteousness, but when he really governs, he actually treats the people like cattle and horses.

Good emperors and good nobles know that cows and horses also have to eat grass; but bad emperors and bad nobles just want the people to be wooden cows and horses.

Liu Yu's words were quite in line with Masaoku Abe's thoughts, and he quite agreed with them in his heart.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to implement the policy of "late marriages and fewer children to ensure that self-sufficient farmers will not dismantle their land, acquiescing to the merger of rich farmers and businessmen so that the 'excess' population can't even marry wives and leave no offspring".

Liu Yu said again: "It is rumored that Lord Jiakang once said that making the people half-dead and having no money left is the secret of politics."

"Shang Jun also said: The way to govern the country requires one people, weak people, tired people, humiliated people, and poor people. This is the same way."

"The people are too bitter, and they will rebel. Before Ieyasu, the people were poor, and Xiangzong lived alone all day long; after that, the people of Shimabara were Catholic. If it was too bitter, the people would be addicted to religion, and religion is the most suitable thing to organize the people. The Celestial Dynasty There are also Wudoumi, Yellow Turban Taoism, White Lotus Sect, Manichaeism, etc., which have emerged in endlessly; Japan's Yixiang Sect and Qiezhidan Sect must also be investigated."

"If the people are too rich, they will overstep and fail to keep their duties. Farmers are farmers, scholars are scholars, workers are workers, merchants are merchants, and untouchables are untouchables. This is their duty. If the people are rich and have spare money, Wouldn't the lower restrain the upper and disrupt the laws and rituals?"

"Why do the people of Japan suffer? One is that there are too many public taxes, and the other is that the land is getting less and less and the population is increasing.

"Abe-kun thinks, can Japan lower the public tax? If it can't reduce the public tax, then we can only start with the second point."

Abe Masaoku nodded in conviction, thinking that this person is indeed a person who cannot disbelieve what he says.

Naturally, the tribute cannot be lowered. If it is lowered, the warriors will be dissatisfied.When the common people are angry, the samurai can still suppress it; if the samurai are dissatisfied, who will suppress it?

Since the interests of the warriors cannot be mobilized, all reforms can only be pondered on by the common people.

The purpose of the reform is nothing more than two points.

money.

stable.

Money can already be obtained through tariffs and opening trade franchises.

Stable, it seems that reducing the population is indeed a good way.Abe Zhengfu thought to himself, although Liu Yu is an enemy, but this person has extremely high means, and his own ideas coincide with this person, he really can be complacent.

(End of this chapter)