Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 874
"People at that time did not have the concept of landlords. Generally, households with an area of ​​more than [-] mu and taxpayers who paid more than a consistent amount were called "upper households", while fourth- and fifth-class households with no more than [-] mu were called "lower households." '."

"There is another major problem, which is the proportion of the population. In Ye Shi's survey, the first-class households are only 40.00%, the second-class households are 30.00%, the third-class households are [-]%, and the fourth-class households are [-]%. , [-]% of the fifth and fourth, and the remaining [-]% of the eight are customers."

"So everyone thinks, among these people, who should be counted as landlords?"

This question is indeed interesting. It is obviously unreasonable to count all regular households as landlords, because then landlords will account for 60.00% of the country's population, which does not conform to the principle of a pyramid society.

However, if the fourth- and fifth-class households are counted as self-cultivating farmers, their average land occupation is about 30 to [-] mu, with an average of more than [-] mu.

Poor and lower-middle peasants with an average family of more than 30 mu?

What really belongs to the employment relationship is the 30.00% of customers. In fact, half of the long-term fixed lease of national land should be cut out here, and the remaining is only 20.00% at most.

This is even more interesting. 12.00% of households exploit 20.00% of customers, and 60.00% of self-cultivated farmers are self-sufficient. Among these two relationships, which one should be regarded as the main social relationship in Chinese feudal society?

Seeing that the friends were all thinking about it, Zhou Zhi knew that the effect had been achieved, so he smiled and said, "It's still the same sentence, we can't use the present to describe the past, but we also can't use the past to describe the present! The specific situation still needs to be analyzed in detail."

"If we compare it to modern times, I am afraid that only the upper households at that time could be called landlords. The remaining families, although they seem to have a lot of land, can only be counted as self-cultivating farmers because of the productivity of underground labor."

"Having said so much, I actually want to express that China has its own special situation. It has a vast territory and a long period of unification. In most historical periods, the development of various places has never been balanced. Therefore, the linear development in Xizhe's mouth The types of human society in China have never been single, and have always existed at the same time.”

"This kind of existence does not only refer to geographical differences, except that capitalism may have sprouted in this place, and slavery and feudalism are still in that place; even in the same city, the slave master-servant relationship, Various social relations such as feudal dependency relations, commodity society employment relations, and self-sufficient small-scale peasant family relations also exist at the same time.”

"You can't even arbitrarily say that kind of relationship is the main social relationship in the area without doing a detailed investigation."

"Therefore, in governing such a country, we must consider the unique actual situation, and any so-called successful experience cannot be copied mechanically."

"Back to the question just now, we can find that it is incompatible to use the "Principles of Social Economics" that we have access to to apply the "General History of China"."

"For example, with regard to the definition of feudal society, the West is characterized by the attribution of land ownership to the feudal lords, while China has adopted the county system since the Qin Dynasty, or the county system is the main system, supplemented by the enfeoffment system."

"According to the improved definition, the characteristics of feudal society are that the economy is a natural economy, based on land, combined with agriculture and handicrafts, with the family as the production unit, self-enclosed, independent, and self-sufficient economic structure. "

"Most of the key means of production in this structure are in the hands of landlords or feudal lords, so it is possible to form a class relationship in which landlords exploit peasants."

"The problem lies in the last sentence. In China, since the "Order of Equal Field" in Tang Dynasty, the state has stipulated the standard of "small acres" in the whole world in the form of law, so "most of the key production materials are controlled by the landlord or feudal In the hands of the lords, it is possible to form a class relationship in which the landlords exploit the peasants’, there is a problem.”

"Even Ma himself said that his investigations and theories are only suitable for Western Europe, so we definitely need to combine our own situation, conduct our own investigations, and finally get our own theories."

"But as far as I know, the successful governments of all dynasties have regarded 'suppressing mergers' as a major issue." Zhang Lu likes to study history and knows all about it: "Doesn't this just show the seriousness of exploitation? "

"First of all, we need to clarify the root cause and purpose of their 'suppression of mergers'." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "'Suppression of mergers' has never been to solve the abuse of exploitation, so it is unscientific to forcibly link the two .”

"Because of the flaws in the system, the merged houses are exempt from taxes and labor, and the owner farmers are attached to them in order to avoid the country's taxes and corvee, which leads to the exhaustion of the country's tax and labor sources."

"So the fundamental purpose of the imperial court to crack down on mergers is to keep the population and the base of the land of self-cultivating farmers, so as to obtain enough taxes and labor to maintain the normal operation of the country." Zhou Zhi said: "This is their fundamental purpose. In order to maintain the rule, 'suppression of mergers' is only a means, not an end."

"Once there is a better way to maintain national income, which can ensure that there will always be money in the treasury, they will immediately throw away the method of 'suppressing mergers'." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "In the 20th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang was completing the country's farmland. Qingzhang, after making the Yulin household register, the first thing to do is to levy a general tax on the whole country, which doubles the revenue of the imperial court."

"Zhu Yuanzhang is already a monarch who loves the people very much. We should not overestimate the benevolence and heart of the ruler."

"Isn't the establishment of the fish-scale household register just to suppress mergers?" Zhang Lu continued to ask.

"The fish-scale household register does not prohibit buying and selling. Although it increases the trouble of transfer procedures, from a system point of view, if buying and selling is not prohibited, of course mergers cannot be suppressed." Zhou Zhi said: "The significance of the existence of the fish-scale household register is that no matter how the land is Transfer, no matter who the land transfers to, there is no way for it to disappear out of thin air.”

"What's the use of that?"

"Lay the foundation for the land to be allocated to the mu, and the government and the gentry to pay the grain together." Zhou Zhi said: "This is the successful experience of the Qing Dynasty. With these two, the production is calculated by the mu, and the tax is calculated by the mu. All land is included in the ranks of expropriation. , it will be able to ensure that the treasury has an inexhaustible tax source, and it will be able to maintain the operation of the country.”

After finishing speaking, he was aggrieved: "Madan finally became the confidence for them to dare to sign unequal treaties."

"Actually, the sharing of food into the mu and the government and the gentry are another kind of complete 'suppression and annexation'. As Jiachuan said, 'Everyone rides horses', the rules are the same."

"There are still special ones, such as the 'hard-core crops' of the banner people." Zhou Zhi shook his head: "But generally speaking, the Qing court has money in its pockets, and the government's situation is better than that of all previous dynasties."

(End of this chapter)