Reborn in the late Northern Wei Dynasty

Chapter 214 Slaves and Cattle
Gao Cheng spent too much time traveling in Xindu to observe the people's conditions, but it was not in vain. Using Jizhou as a template, he somewhat increased his understanding of the people at the bottom of this period.

There is no doubt that the allocation of acres is the most concerned thing for everyone.

The Eastern Wei Dynasty inherited the old system of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Males over the age of 15 were granted 80 mu of exposed fields and females 120 mu. Ding grants 40 to 60 mu of land, and women grants [-] to [-] mu of land, also known as "Bei Tian".

Historically, until the founding of the Northern Qi Dynasty, although the Eastern Wei Dynasty suffered great damage in the west and the people suffered from years of wars, the amount of land was reduced from 80 to 120 mu for men to 80 mu.

The more critical point is to increase the age for granting land from 15 to 18. The Northern Qi Dynasty was established 12 years later, and it is already facing considerable population pressure.

In the early years of the Sui Dynasty, in the narrow township area, men were only granted 20 mu of land.

There are also different ways of land annexation in different periods.

Among the privately owned fields of the people in the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, and Northern Qi Dynasties, only 20 mu of mulberry fields were granted to men as Yongye fields, which can be passed on to descendants, and the rest must be returned to the state.

The decree clearly stipulates that Yongye Field is not allowed to be bought or sold. Therefore, land mergers during this period were mainly granted to slaves and maidservants and cattle.

Granting fields to slaves and maidservants is equivalent to good people. Under the rule of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, male servants were given 80 to 120 mu of land, and another 20 mu of mulberry fields were used as Yongye farmland, maidservants were granted 40 to 60 mu of land, and hemp fields were 5 mu.

60 mu of land is granted to each farm ox, and each household is limited to 4 cows, or 240 mu.

This is the land annexation method that Gao Cheng is currently facing. The aristocratic family relies on servants and cattle to occupy a large amount of land.

However, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which relied on the upper hand of the powerful family, finally abolished the granting of land to slaves and maidservants, but in the Tang Dynasty, a bigger hole was opened:

Yongyetian trading is allowed.

Therefore, the way of land annexation in the Tang Dynasty was mainly based on the accumulation of private land by aristocratic families, that is, Yongye land, which eventually led to less public land and more private land, which eventually led to the collapse of the land equalization system.

The aristocratic families from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty obtained a large amount of land by relying on slaves to farm cattle, but in the final analysis, these lands belonged to the state, while the merger of Yongyetian belonged to private land.

Gao Cheng is now facing a dilemma. The larger the population, the less land per capita, the poorer the people, and the easier it is to sell themselves into slavery, which makes the land more concentrated among the aristocratic families.

The reform of the tax system, from collecting poll tax on a household basis to collecting a poll tax on a person-by-person basis, is effective.

The Tang Dynasty, which collected head tax by household, increased its population by 15% in 60.00 years. Converted at this rate, it would take 25 years for the population to double.

However, in the Han Dynasty that Gao Cheng wanted to emulate, it took 38 years for the population to double, which could be delayed by a full 13 years.

Reforming the tax system has never done more than slow down population growth.

In addition to the expansion of the Han Dynasty, the poor and crazy Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty advanced the poll tax for young children to 3 years old, and the rest were set at 7 years old. This also took into account the ancient infant mortality rate.

Population tax is not collected from birth.

Reform the tax system, and at the same time cooperate with the abolition of slaves and maidservants, and the granting of land for farming cattle, so that the behavior of livestock slaves of the aristocratic families will not receive any benefits except for personal enjoyment.Even if Gao Cheng set the poll tax for slaves to be extremely low, he could force the aristocratic families to release a large number of slaves.

Gao Cheng can't control what future generations will do, but under his administration, the abolition of slaves and maidservants, the granting of land for farming cattle, and the maintenance of the system that Yongye land cannot be bought or sold is a heavy blow to land annexation.

This behavior cannot wait until the whole country is unified.

It must be developed in Kanto, where the control is strongest. In the future, other regions will be gradually annexed, and they will be automatically included in the Kanto system.

If we really want to wait for the unification in the future before implementing it, we will face nationwide opposition and repeated rebellions.

In particular, it needs to be pointed out that the amount of poll tax collected by household is different from the amount of poll tax collected by person.

It is collected by household, and each husband and wife receives one piece of cloth and silk every year.

(In the Han Dynasty, a piece of cloth was about 300 yuan, and in the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, a piece of cloth was about 360 yuan. If there is no data from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty, it will be calculated as 300 yuan.)
The Han system was restored and collected on a per-person basis. Taking the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when the head tax was the highest in the Han Dynasty, for example, adult men and women were charged 120 yuan per year.

That is, monogamy is 240 yuan per year, which means that before the child reaches the age of 7 and pays the 20 yuan tax, the amount of tax to be paid is lower than that charged by household.

It is also equivalent to the fact that after the three children are 7 years old, the taxes that need to be paid are the same as those collected by households.

In the first 7 years, the tax can be reduced by 60 yuan for the people every year.

Therefore, the tax reform has little impact on couples with no more than three children, and it can even reduce their burden in the first 7 years.

Those who are really affected are those who have children and piglets, but while they enjoy the 7-year tax cut, they only need to survive the remaining 8 years.

Gao Cheng returned to the mansion and immediately wrote a letter to report on the tax reform and Gao Huan in detail. The previous communication had been agreed by the other party.

In terms of tax, Gao Cheng followed the example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Adults over the age of 15 received 120 yuan per capita, but he increased the tax for children by 20 yuan, which is 40 yuan.

Raise three children, save 60 yuan in taxes every year for the first seven years, and increase taxes by 60 yuan compared with household collection in the next eight years.

In conversion, the amount of tax borne by a monogamous couple raising three children as adults during the same period remains unchanged.

After talking about this in detail with Gao Huan, he began to focus on the abolition of farming cattle and granting land to slaves and maidservants.

Now that the Beitian system in Hebei is struggling, Gao Huan also felt deeply worried in his reply to Gao Cheng.

Gao Cheng's response was to follow the example of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. There was already a shortage of land supply for people, so there was no room left to distribute it to cattle.

And the abolition of slaves and maidservants to Tian Gaocheng also made it clear that it was to make the gentry and livestock slaves unprofitable.

Since livestock slaves are not profitable, the poll tax for slaves and maidservants is set extremely low, 120 yuan for adults and 40 yuan for children.

However, Gao Cheng only set 20 qian for the slaves, which is equivalent to 15 qian paid by 300 slaves, which is a piece of cloth.

The tax amount of 20 qian is within the acceptable range for the aristocratic family, and they must not be forced too much.

The abolition of farm cattle and land grants to slaves and maidservants is bound to attract unanimous opposition from the aristocratic families, but this is also the only way to change the concentration of land to the aristocratic families.

The more slaves and maidservants, the more land the aristocratic family will get, and the less land available for common people to distribute, so more people will fall into poverty and have to be reduced to slavery. However, the local distribution of land will always be given priority to the slaves and maidservants of the aristocratic family. , which also exacerbates this vicious circle.

Although the land in the hands of the aristocratic family is public property, as long as they maintain the number of servants, what is the difference from private property?
Gao Cheng felt that abolishing slaves and maidservants, granting farmland to farm cattle, not only would he have to sit in Hebei, but also needed the assistance of Gao Huan's generals.

　It's so annoying to use the mobile phone to code words. It's 9 minutes late. This month's full attendance is gone. It's uncomfortable.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)