Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 287 Prime Minister (Sixteen) Choose One
Li Rumei's incident was just a small sideshow. After the greetings were finished with the senior commanders, it was time to get down to business.

As the real boss of the Ming Dynasty's military, Gao Pragmatic not only has a special status, perfect resume, and illustrious military exploits, but the more critical point is that he can determine the future of any army in the Ming Dynasty-no matter good or bad, Gao Pragmatic A pragmatic moment.

How?Because he had the support of the emperor and strong control over the financial power of the Ming Dynasty.

It is difficult to build a strong army, but easy to destroy a once strong army.After this once powerful army was destroyed, it would be even more difficult to restore it to what it was like in its heyday, or even better than before.However, although there are many difficulties, the most difficult one can be determined. In the final analysis, it is all about the economy.

Reviewing the Imperial Guards was an order given by Gao Pragmatic, which kept the Imperial Guards busy for a long time.Now that the posture was set up, Gao Pragmatic only took the two veterans for a brief inspection, and did not even ask the various units of the Imperial Guard to conduct simple drills.His own explanation was: "The purpose of the temporary inspection is to see whether the Guards can be ready for expedition within the specified time, rather than to test the technical and tactical training results of each town in the school."

Then, he ordered Ma Gui to dismiss the review and go to the White Tiger Festival Hall to hold a meeting of senior officers.The so-called meeting of senior military officers means that the generals attending the meeting are at least one-standard co-union - those who can achieve co-unification in the Imperial Guard can be deputy generals at the local level.

At the beginning of the meeting, Gao Pragmatic confused almost all the participating generals with one sentence: "If the Imperial Guard system is implemented in every town in the world, what do you think?"

This question was so sudden that everyone was confused. Everyone looked at each other and looked at each other. For a long time, no one dared to answer.In the end, Ma Gui, the current commander, could not pretend to be dead. He coughed lightly and tentatively said: "Yuanfu, the Imperial Guard is the elite in the world. No one knows how powerful it is, but its cost... If it is implemented in all towns in the world, it will Will worry..."

Gao Pragmatic smiled, glanced at Li Chengliang intentionally or unknowingly, and said: "The Imperial Guard is supported by the financial resources of the Beijing Camp Production and Construction Corps. If this system is promoted nationwide, all towns will naturally be in line with the Beijing Camp and distinguish wars. soldiers and production and construction corps. I just don’t know whether the commander-in-chief and command department of each region will choose combat soldiers or the production and construction corps.”

This statement is actually a bit straightforward: I want to extend the model of the Jingying military reform to all towns in the Ming Dynasty. Soldiers will be singled out to train and fight, and all other military households will be organized into production and construction corps to be responsible for their respective military towns. Supply of soldiers.Now I'm here to have a meeting with you because you were all generals of the border army before you came to the Guards. Do you think your family will choose to be in charge of the combat corps or the production and construction corps?

Gao Pragmatic's question is somewhat difficult to ask. After all, for a family of military commanders, I originally controlled both of them. Why do I have to choose one or the other now?

However, Gao pragmatism must let them choose, and all the military generals and families of the Ming Dynasty must choose once.This must talk about a misunderstanding of ancient finance by many people in later generations.In the eyes of many people, national mobilization power is equal to fiscal revenue, which is equal to taxation, and the main source of military expenditure is taxation.In fact, this is not the case, this is just the situation in modern "normal countries".

This mobilization system in which citizens pay money to the state, and the state in turn purchases materials, labor, and military service from the citizens, is based on a developed commodity economy as the social foundation.In a feudal society that relied on a "self-sufficient" natural economy as its economic basis and lacked currency and commodities, the modern mobilization system with credit currency as its core had no social basis for its existence.

The formula that is more in line with the reality of feudal society is that the state's mobilization power is equal to corvee plus taxation, plus other fiscal revenue.

Corvee includes labor service and military service.To put it simply, citizens work for the country for free and serve as soldiers without wages.The economy of most feudal societies was dominated by traditional agriculture based on "depending on the weather to make a living", with two major characteristics: self-sufficiency and seasonal labor.Therefore, farmers, the main citizens of feudal society, lacked money the most and had time the most.Therefore, it was in line with the social reality at that time to let farmers donate their time as the main "tax payment" model, work for the country for free, and serve as soldiers.

The military service in ancient corvee service is equivalent to the modern "compulsory military service system." The typical feature of this military system in terms of "military equipment" is the saying in "Mulan Ci" that "you can buy horses in the east market, saddles in the west market, and saddles in the south. Buy bridles in the market, buy whips in the north market."

You see, not only are there no wages, but you also have to spend your own money to buy horses, weapons and many other military equipment.In fact, the famous "mansion soldiers" of the Tang Dynasty not only had to bring their own horses and most weapons when they went on an expedition, but they even had to bring their own rations.

What needs to be emphasized is that this kind of "backward transfer" type of work and military service is based on "land enfeoffment" as the social basis.The original meaning of the feudal system in terms of finance is: I will "distribute land" to you, and you will work and fight for me for free.

"Corvee service" in exchange for "enfeoffment" of land was the main basis of the mobilization power of feudal society.This situation is most typical in the European Middle Ages: the king "settles" the land to the big lords, the big lords "settles" the land to the small lords, the small lords "settles" the land to the knights, and the knights "settles" the land to the peasants ,serf.

In return, the big lord fought for the king and managed the large administrative areas for free, the small lords fought for the big lord and managed the small administrative areas for free, the knights fought for the small lords and managed the grassroots for free, and the peasants and serfs fought for the knights for free and provided military rations.

In China, it is slightly different. The main difference is that in most of the Han areas after the Qin Dynasty, there was only one "big lord", the emperor. The emperor directly governed the "small lords" represented by clans and township parties and the "small lords" represented by the government soldiers in the Han area. Yeomanry soldier.

In short, wars in feudal society theoretically did not require military expenditures in the form of currency.Because after the land was "enfeoffed", the soldiers did not need to be paid, and even most of the military equipment and a considerable part of the food were provided by the soldiers themselves.

Of course, there are also some people who are unwilling or unable to serve in person. There are solutions, such as paying to hire someone to serve on their behalf.In European history, the prototype of taxation began with "free money" to replace labor and military service.In ancient China, this "service money" gradually transformed into a tax similar to the "capital tax".With the development of the commodity economy, eventually monetary taxation gradually replaced unpaid corvee as the main way for citizens to contribute to the country.

Taxation refers to the property that citizens hand over for free on a regular basis. It has the characteristics of compulsory, gratuitous and fixed nature, and is customarily called the "three properties" of taxation.However, the feudal regime also had many non-mandatory, paid and unfixed incomes. The common point was that they did not have the "three properties" of taxation at the same time.This is the so-called "other fiscal revenue" mentioned above. Some are regarded as "taxes" by modern people but were not considered "taxes" in ancient times. The main ones include the following.

One is the income generated from various economic industries such as land, mines, factories, and trading companies owned by monarchs, lords, and government officials.

To modern people, this seems a bit like state-owned land and state-owned enterprises, but in the feudal society of "family world", these incomes are not "state income", but the private income of monarchs and lords.It can be used not only for the family life enjoyment of monarchs and lords, but also for the country's financial expenditure.Politically, it can be said that "there is no distinction between family and country", and in finance, it can be said that "there is no distinction between public and private affairs."This kind of income used to be the main or even the entire source of fiscal revenue for most feudal regimes.For example, in the early years, the income of the British king mainly came from the real estate income provided by the royal domain and the returns from the transfer of certain privileges.For example, granting autonomy to towns or allowing farmers to use mountains and forests were not considered taxes at the time, but private income for the monarch, and could also be used for administrative expenses.

The Ming Dynasty is also comparable in this regard. For example, it has a large number of imperial villages, guard fields, and government-run factories. What is particularly worth mentioning is the "internal money" of the Ming emperor and the industry of the vassal princes.Of course, these situations have undergone some changes due to highly pragmatic reforms, and I will not repeat them here.

The second is to issue currency, including precious metal coins and banknotes.

In the eyes of modern people, this is actually a seigniorage tax, but in ancient times it was not considered a tax, especially precious metal coinage, which had no mandatory and gratuitous tax characteristics at all. The Spanish Empire in the 16th century, the Kingdom of Lydia in the 6th century BC, and the kingdoms of Mali in West Africa around 1000 AD all had governments monopolizing major gold and silver mines as the main source of fiscal revenue.

In this regard, the Ming Dynasty obtained income by issuing "Da Ming Bao Banknotes" and mining silver mines. After the Bao Banknotes became waste paper, all that was left was mining.Now Gao pragmatism has "seized" the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes with Ming Federal Reserve banknotes, and the mines have begun to allow free buying and selling - but not including gold and silver precious metal mines.What Gao Pragmatic strives for is the free trade of copper mines, because these days copper is still needed to make cannons.

The third is income obtained through fines, house searches, war plunder, war reparations, etc.

These incomes are not fixed and have never been regarded as taxes. They are usually the main income before and in the early days of the establishment of a new feudal dynasty.In this regard, in the Ming Dynasty, there were frightening factory guards who raided homes. There is a famous proverb - "The gangsters are like a comb, the soldiers are like a grate, and the officials are like a shave."Of course, the later Tatar and Dashun regimes mainly relied on war and plunder to solve financial problems.

The fourth is income obtained through “selling official positions” and “selling land”.

"Selling officials" was relatively common in ancient China and was often legal; "selling land" was rare in ancient China, but in modern times it has become the main fiscal revenue for many local governments.The Ming Dynasty originally had almost no "land sales", but openly "sold officials" (not necessarily with positions, such as selling the status of a supervisor), and there was a complete system.

The change brought about by high pragmatism is that some wealthy people in the Ming Dynasty know how to invest in "real estate". For example, if Jinghua wants to open a new port, some people already know how to hoard land around the port in advance; if Jinghua wants to open a mine in a certain place, the surrounding areas will also There will be people hoarding land... and so on. This is what everyone learned from Jinghua's own supporting development in the past.

The fifth is borrowing from domestic and foreign countries. This was very rare in ancient China, but it is relatively common in Europe.

Feudal society did not have the concept of state in the modern sense. For the feudal society of "family world", since the state is privately owned by the monarch and local political power is privately owned by the noble lords, then the living expenses and daily administrative expenses of the monarch and lords should naturally come from Withdrawal from their private property.

As for economic construction and war, since the subjects have been allowed to bring their own rations, tools and weapons and equipment to work for the monarch and perform military service "for free", in theory the monarch does not need to spend anything.

In addition, the monarch can also obtain large sums of wealth to subsidize the finances through various channels such as seigniorage, war plunder, and "selling officials."Therefore, according to the economic status and morality of feudal society, it would be unreasonable and immoral for the monarch to tax his subjects heavily.

In the European Middle Ages, the common sense at that time was that "a king should live on his own" and "a king should live on his own diet" was a recognized principle.This means that in feudal relations in the Middle Ages, kings and lords should mainly rely on the income of their own territories for their livelihoods, and feudal countries should mainly rely on the private income of feudal lords to pay for daily financial expenses.

At least until the end of the 13th century, the income from the king's domain still accounted for the vast majority of the European royal income and the financial expenditure of European feudal countries.Medieval people generally believed that a well-governed state should not be based on taxing its subjects. Taxation was once seen as an infringement of private property.

However, with the emergence of centralization, the expansion of the bureaucracy and standing army, and the increasing public expenditure, the king's "private income" alone was no longer enough to support the government.As a result, the finance of the feudal country changed from "the king lives on himself" to "the king lives on his subjects", and taxation gradually became the main source of national fiscal revenue.For specific information, you can refer to "Income and Tax Collection in the Middle Ages" and "About Taxation since the Middle Ages".

But even in modern times, early bourgeois regimes did not mainly rely on taxation to solve the problem of military expenditures. The main sources of military expenditures were "land sales", borrowings, excessive issuance of banknotes, foreign military aggression, etc.

In China, because it entered the era of centralization as early as the Qin Dynasty and established a huge professional bureaucracy and a standing army very early, China made taxation one of the main sources of national fiscal revenue very early.

Since the Warring States Period, there have been four main tax systems in China's feudal society: the rent-tax system in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties (land tax and head tax were levied), the rent-tax system from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties (land tax, head tax and labor tax were levied), The Two Tax Law (collecting asset tax and land tax) from the middle Tang Dynasty to the middle Ming Dynasty, and the One Whip Law and Diding Law (collecting land tax) from the middle Tang Dynasty to the middle period of the Opium War.

It can be seen that from the perspective of development, China's early taxation was based on various materials, mainly grain and cloth. Later, with the development of the commodity economy, it was gradually changed to currency.China's taxation changed from physical tax to monetary tax, which started with the "One Whip Law" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

For a unified dynasty like China, the combination of corvee service and taxation constituted the two pillars of the mobilization power of China's feudal regime.Homeowners were the main source of corvee service, military service, and taxation for China's feudal regime. Once a large number of homeowners went bankrupt, the country's mobilization power was basically gone, and it was usually time to change dynasties.Therefore, in order to ensure that farmers would not go bankrupt in large numbers, many dynasties in China advocated "light corvee and low tax". Correspondingly, it became immoral to impose heavy taxes.

The truth is clear, then according to the formula of "state mobilization equals corvee plus taxation and other fiscal revenue" in feudal society, if we look at the Ming Dynasty's finance and mobilization system, we will know how the Ming Dynasty collapsed in history. At the same time, We can also know what Gao Pragmatic's appearance has changed, and what he still needs to change.
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PS: All three members of the family had the flu. The young man got vaccinated and was cured the next day. Our husband and wife are all sick now.

(End of this chapter)