Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1595 A New Conspiracy (Part [-])
In the golden autumn season, tens of thousands of households are busy with farming.The household department is also one of the busiest seasons of the year because it is in charge of the autumn grain storage.

Although more than half of the entire Ming Dynasty has changed to a whip method, and the land tax is no longer collected in kind but in kind, nearly half of the regions continue to implement the collection in kind, so the collection and storage of autumn grain is still the top priority.

Especially in the entire Northwest region, as well as other Southwest regions except Chengdu Yifu, this half of the country still has to act according to the old rules.In addition, areas that have changed to a whip method will start to collect Jinhuayin—that is, tax silver, and tax silver has central and local account distribution and transshipment.

All of the above, each of which is a major event, needs to be personally cared for by Gao Yushi, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

If the overall time period since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty is calculated, the average annual land tax of the Ming Dynasty is about 2950 million shi, of which 1200 million shi kept in the local yamen are excluded, and the remaining 1750 million shi has to be transported to the capital.

Among the 1750 million shi, about 750 million shi were expropriated in the north, and most of these grains were used as military rations in the Nine Borders area.The remaining about 1000 million stones will be used as the income of the center of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, because the Ming Dynasty implemented the two-Beijing system, the political center was divided into Nanjing and Beijing, so out of the 1000 million shi, 120 million shi went to Nanjing, and the other 820 million shi went to Beijing.

Of these taxes, about 400 million shi came from the southern provinces.Therefore, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court converted the 400 million shi into approximately 100 million taels of gold flower silver according to the conversion ratio of four shi grains into one tael of silver.As a result, Jinhuayin has become a special term for land tax and silver.

As mentioned above, among the original land taxes of the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of the south was higher than that of the north.However, due to the long distance from the south to the capital, the transportation is inconvenient, and the loss from the south to the north is quite large. The loss ratio is about [-]%, that is, one tenth, which means that every ten stones of grain transported has one stone. It was wasted in vain.

Calculated based on the fact that Ming transported 1000 million shi of tax and grain from the south, 100 million shi would be lost on the road alone, which can be said to be an astronomical figure—think about the Battle of Odawara not long after Japan passed, and the support of the Sea Trade Alliance The Hojo family had [-] shi of rice, and the Hojo family could last two or three months longer in the face of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of more than [-].

What about 100 million stone?If you calculate more rigidly, that would be enough to feed fifty Odawara Castles for two or three months, and the enemy needs to dispatch more than 1000 million troops.Although it is impossible for such a situation to happen in reality, it is enough to prove that the concept of 100 million shi grains is definitely not a joke.

In addition to loss, limited water transport capacity is also a major problem.According to the calculation of a Mr. Huang in later generations, the maximum water transportation capacity of Daming is between 400 million shi and 500 million shi per year. Among the 820 million shi of grain shipped from the south to the north every year, about 400 million cannot be transported to the capital through inland waterway shipping. Therefore, This also led to the Ming court having to turn the 400 million shi grains into silver taels.

In fact, judging from the situation since Gao Pragmatically traveled, during the period between Long Wan and Long Wan, if Jinghua hadn’t risen so fast, it would have been difficult for the imperial court to even transport 420 million shi of southern grain to the north.Because at that time, the Yellow River was in danger year after year, flooding at least several counties almost every year, and then naturally cut off the waterway, making it impossible for tank boats to pass through.

During that time, Gao Yushi pushed Gao Gong to ship by sea, and Jinghua itself also took part of it.But to be honest, Jinghua barely made any money transporting the original grain at that time, and the southern sea ships collected by the imperial court also did not earn money from transporting grain.

The part where everyone earns money is almost all carrying private goods and returning goods.Carrying private work means that when transporting grain from the south to the north, the ship not only loads grain, but also brings some special products from the south, no matter what kind of lake silk Su embroidery, or paper and inkstone. Anyway, it is impossible to only transport grain.

As for Jinghua, in addition to making money in this matter, it also developed the newly built Tianjin Port at that time because of the relationship of shipping.And because Jinghua also controls the "industrial zone" in Kaiping and the soda lake, cattle, sheep and horses in Tumed, it makes a lot of money.

If the south and the north of Ming Dynasty are forcibly regarded as two independent economies, most of the reduction in the trade deficit in the northern region is due to the outstanding performance of Jinghua, a giant group.

However, later, the advancement of the whip method was accelerated, and the eastern and central provinces in the south gradually began to fully collect gold flowers and silver, and the task of transporting grain was considered to be handed over.But if the grain is not transported, it is good for Jinghua, and the shipowners and shippers in the south are not a problem, because if the grain is not transported, the tonnage will be freed up to load the goods, and the circulation of goods will be accelerated, and everyone will earn more.

At this time, there is a problem: Who will transport the gold flowers and silver?
There is no doubt that even the Jiangnan chaebols are unwilling to compete with Jinghua for this business. After all, they will go to Tianjin Port for delivery, which is Jinghua's first private port, and the berthing fee depends entirely on Jinghua's mood.As a result, the business of transporting gold flowers and silver in the south became a monopoly business in Jinghua, and government offices in various places in the south had to spend a sum of money every year to pay for the freight.

Wait a minute, why did the yamen in various parts of the south give money to Jinghua?Shouldn't this money be counted as "central tax"?Shouldn't the Ministry of Households, which is the central finance, pay for it?

Really not, the money was paid out from the local government from the beginning to the end in the Ming Dynasty. Specifically, it can be roughly divided into five steps.

In the first step, the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty calculates the tax payment of each province.Every year, the imperial court makes statistics on the amount of tax paid in the current year based on the amount of tax paid in the previous year.And the gold flower silver that should be paid by each province this year will be distributed to the localities, and the local government offices will collect gold flower silver according to the requirements issued by the Ministry of Households.This is the initial link of all steps in the collection process of gold flowers and silver.

In the second step, the local yamen issued a "Yuan".According to the amount of tax paid by the Ministry of Households, the local yamen divides the total tax payment of the province and distributes it to different local yamen.

The government offices at all levels issued the tax certificates layer by layer, and finally the county government issued "instructions" to specific taxpayers, which is similar to the list of tax payables.This step is very critical, through this step the task of distributing the tax amount is realized.

In the third step, the taxpayer encloses the silver.For example, a certain grain chief (note: "grain chief" will be discussed later) after receiving the bill, sealed up the silver according to his own tax amount, and handed over the silver to the county government according to the corresponding method.Through this step, the taxpayer realizes the process of paying taxes.

In the fourth step, the local yamen transported the gold flowers and silver to the capital.In fact, the process of the local yamen transporting gold flower silver to the central government is the most complicated link in the entire gold flower silver collection process.

In the process of transporting gold flowers and silver by local government offices, a two-level management system was generally implemented in the past.The so-called two-level management means that the local yamen is in charge of the clerical work of gold, flowers and silver, while the specific transportation work is handed over to private agents.

This kind of agent is actually very similar to the escort agency often seen in film and television works, and it can be called a courier company in modern language.In addition, there is another situation, that is, the local government arranges grain chiefs with a large amount of silver to undertake the task of transportation.

In the later period, this method in which the food chief was responsible for transporting tax grain or gold flower and silver gradually evolved into a feudal labor service, and the burden of transportation gradually fell on the common people. The specific situation will be discussed below.

The fifth step, the household department checks and checks.After the gold flowers and silver are transported to the capital in the local area, the household department usually checks and checks the silver.If the amount is consistent with the tax amount issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs, the gold flowers and silver will be put into the national treasury.Thus realizing all the processes of gold flower and silver collection.

Once the steps are clear, the situation can be clarified: whether it is grain transportation or gold flower and silver transportation, it has always been the work of the local government in the Ming Dynasty, and the central government just sits on the ground to receive the goods.It’s okay to say that the goods are delivered with guaranteed quality and quantity, as long as the goods are not delivered, or the goods are not in the right number, the responsibility is all on the local side.

Jinghua is obviously the most powerful logistics group in the Ming Dynasty. Its position as a "transportation contractor" is unshakable, and its charges are relatively fair, so it is deeply trusted by government offices everywhere.

This year, this situation may be due to the fact that Gao Yushi has firmly secured his position as the Minister of the Ministry of Households. The yamen or the chief officials of various places suddenly began to clamor for one thing: the abolition of the long-term grain transportation system, and the gold, silver, and real goods all over the country. The food tax will be transported by Jinghua.

This incident was violent, and the imperial court received more than 70 memorials from yamen from all over the country within a month, all of which were about this incident.Gao Wushi discovered that it was the Jiangnan area that was the first to clamor for this matter, mainly officials from the Mind School, but later on, even officials from the Real School and the Neutral School began to follow up, resulting in the current situation where the court is full of voices .

It stands to reason that it should be a good thing to do business. After all, although Jinghua’s fees are not high, since it is a business, it must be profitable. What’s more, Jinghua’s transportation force is already strong, and it’s idle if it’s idle. What’s wrong with doing more business? ?
However, Gao Pragmatism became vigilant, always feeling that there was someone pushing behind this incident.As for the reason, it may be formed by intertwining many aspects.To explain Gao Pragmatism's vigilance and even suspicion, we must first talk about the grain chief system with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.

In September of the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated the "Jianliang Zhejiang Autumn Grain Edict", which was the first time to create a "grain chief system".Simply put, the system means that the imperial court no longer sends officials to collect grain, but instead entrusts the important task of collecting grain to the villagers with high morals and prestige in the village, who are grain chiefs.In this imperial edict: "... Among them, those with a lot of land will be the grain chiefs, who will supervise the taxation of their villages."

The grain chief system was first implemented in Zhejiang, and later implemented nationwide, becoming an important system in Ming Dynasty.Here comes the question, why does Lao Zhu want to implement the grain length system?
In fact, Lao Zhu himself made it quite clear in the imperial edict that the basic reason for the establishment of the grain length system came from "corrupt officials have harmed the people and enriched oneself for four years, and I deeply sympathize with it."

Corruption was serious in the officialdom in the Yuan Dynasty, and corrupt officials oppressed the common people.Originally, the various miscellaneous taxes of the imperial court made the people breathless, and the officials filled their private pockets by collecting grain. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a poor peasant, naturally hated the officials, so he let the people take care of them for the purpose of caring for the people. collect taxes.

According to Lao Zhu's thinking, the villagers in the big hometown are all his own people, and it will definitely not be too embarrassing for his own people to collect taxes from his own people.This so-called "govern the good people with good people, there will be no danger of invasion and fishing".At the same time, there is another advantage of being a food chief, which is to reduce the quota of civil servants, which can save the country money.

Therefore, Lao Zhu said in his edict: "The establishment of the head of grain is convenient for the division and the people. So it is convenient for the division, and if a county is worth 20 grain, only ten grain chiefs should be set up, and no more than [-] principals and deputys. The deadline is sufficient, and hard work cares about the head of the grain, but there is a department that can only send a grain officer from the Ministry to pay somewhere."

Look, what a policy!In the past, it took ten or twenty people to run the errand, but now it is left to the folks to do it themselves, as long as they send someone to hand over it and get it back, it's over.It really saves people and effort, and there will be no scandals of bullying men and women, how great, bright and correct.From the lines in the imperial edict and imperial edict, anyone who can read can see how satisfied Lao Zhu is with his long grain system.

Ever since, the grain length system began to be extended.Probably because of the need for large grain-producing households to assume more social responsibilities, the "man with a lot of land" was the head of grain, and the position of head of grain naturally fell into the hands of the landlords and gentry.

There is no doubt that in a feudal autocratic society, rights will inevitably bring benefits, and when rights are given to those who have resources, the benefits will naturally be even greater.Landlords and squires were originally people with considerable social resources, and then they took the position of grain chief and had the right to collect grain. It can be said that they are even more powerful and can get great benefits.

The first advantage of this is that you can enrich your own pockets by doing food.The main responsibilities of the head of grain are the collection, collection, and transportation of grain taxes.According to regulations, the head of grain must first receive the survey and cooperation from the government, and then give the head of the village the grain collection quota according to the requirements, and then the head of the head of the village will assign the task to the head of the armor, and the head of the armor will go door-to-door to collect grain.

After Chief Jia receives the grain, he summarizes it to the head of the village, and the chief of the village summarizes it to the head of the grain. After the head of the grain counts and summarizes it, he is also responsible for escorting it to the designated place.

Obviously, in such a multi-level process of handling affairs, one can give full play to one's ingenuity, use various methods to set up a name, engage in personal fraud, and obtain huge profits.

For example, during the Hongwu period, there was a grain chief named Zhu Anai. He cleverly set up a lot of tricks, such as collecting rice from the boat, cart money, off-husband money, book-making money, and grain bureau knowing house money. , See the rice in the rice sample and so on.Originally, the tax quota given to him by the imperial court was only 3 shi of rice. As a result, this guy not only collected [-] shi of rice, but also [-] copper coins—of course he didn’t do it for the sake of good performance. The extra part other than Shi Dami obviously went into his own pocket.

This is not an isolated case. For example, Jin Zhongfang, the food chief of Jiading County, and others, privately added [-] types of taxes, and they also made a lot of money.All these kinds are too numerous to enumerate.

It is well known that Zhu Yuanzhang is extremely strict in governing corruption, so those who are corrupt by grain chiefs will peel the bark and weeds.However, like other corruption situations, even under such severe punishments, many people still take risks, which shows how rich the oil and water are.

By the way, in addition to the main business of collecting grain, the grain chief will also assign them some other tasks from time to time.For example, participating in inventory and verification of land, compiling fish scale atlases, leading the people to reclaim wasteland, even morally persuading the villagers, and even participating in judicial proceedings as "jurors".These positions are very lucrative, even if there is no lucrative part, at least they can be called around to the common people, educated from a high platform, so majestic.

In addition, the food minister also enjoys some political privileges.For example, if the grain chief commits certain crimes, he can be reduced to one level, and even spend money to avoid punishment. "Ming Shilu" contains: "In the twelfth month of the eighth year of Hongwu, Guisi, the Yushitai was sent to Yushitai and said: "By setting up a grain chief, let him take charge of the herdsman's rent, so as to avoid the disadvantages of the department's harassment, which is very beneficial to the people. Since the present grain chief If there are miscellaneous criminals who have committed death crimes and exiled or disciples, stop the staff and prevent them from being transported." Yu Shitaichen said: "The head of grain has committed crimes, and promises to pay money to atone for the crime." It can be controlled."

It is true that the crimes mentioned here do not include official crimes such as using power for personal gain and corrupting the law, and can only redeem "miscellaneous criminals", but even so, they are already superior.

Not only that, the grain chiefs in the early years of the Ming Dynasty were led by officials every year, and they were sent to the capital to "verify their integrity" and then worship the emperor.

This is amazing. It is not a great honor for a rich man in the countryside to meet the emperor. Can he boast for a lifetime?At this time, after the emperor read the official's assessment report on the grain chief, he would reward the outstanding grain chief, and some even directly appointed officials.

For example, Yan Zhenzhi from Wucheng, Zhejiang Province was originally a food chief. When he went to Beijing to report on his duties, Zhu Yuanzhang said that he had done a good job, and directly gave him a fifth-rank general administration secretary.

All in all, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the food was grown in the local area, which was really powerful and powerful, it was really a great job, everyone loved it, and everyone wanted to be it.Those who have been elected will never give up to other families, and only hope that their children and grandchildren can continue to do so, so the grain chiefs at that time were all "Yongchong".

However, as the saying goes, there are no flowers that last a hundred days, and later, being a food chief turned out to be a terrible job.

Gu Yuanqing, who lived at that time, said in "Yibaizhai Poetry Talk" that there was an upstart in Changshu who bought a large field.At this time, a Taoist priest came to ask him for alms, but the upstart refused to give it to him, so the Taoist priest wrote a poem on the wall of his house: "Buy more farms to laugh at you idiots, and then follow after you get rid of the crops. See how many years he cultivates." , to whom will the children and grandchildren be sold?"

You are having a lot of fun buying fields and land now, but when you become a grain chief in the future, there will be times when you will cry.This is not nonsense. At that time, people in Wuzhong "feared (grain chief) service as much as they feared death", and would rather die than be a grain chief.

Zhu Guozhen, a Juren in the 16th year of Wanli, said in his "Song of Yongchuang", "It is better for the people to avoid the battle of grain chiefs than to be exiled."He also told a story that Guo Bo, the magistrate of Changzhou, had a gap with the retired old Shangshu Liu Ying, so he arranged for the seven members of Liu Ying's family to be food chiefs. died.

From being sought after by everyone, regarded as the pinnacle of power and fame in the countryside, to a god of plague that everyone can't avoid, what happened to the post of chief grain officer in the 200-year history of the Ming Dynasty? ——
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Sanskrit (Li)", "Herendil", "Book Friends 20170107012220447" for their monthly support, thank you!
PS: Yesterday's chapter was probably blocked due to some religious reasons. I changed it and submitted it to unban it, but it was still ruled illegal.Hehe... It seems that I can't apply for lifting the ban again within 48 hours. I'll check again in a few days.

(End of this chapter)