Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 132 Statistics of Ming Dynasty
At this time, Zhu Gaoxu took out a memorial from his right sleeve pocket and presented it to Zhu Di.

"Dad, this is what I made overnight after summoning Xia Yuanji and Zhuo Jing, the ministers of the Ministry of Revenue, as well as the ministers, ministers, and officials of the provinces in the Ministry of Revenue, to check the number of permanent residents, acres of cultivated land, and tax revenue in each province and county in the first year of Yongle. A statistical chart of the relationship between taxation, population, and cultivated land.”

The chief officials of the six ministries are the minister and the minister. Among them, the minister of the second rank is the official leader of the six ministries, while the minister of the third rank is the deputy of the minister. They are divided into the left minister and the right minister, presenting a configuration of one chief and two deputies.

The second-level organization of the six ministries is called the Qing Li Department, but in terms of the setting up of the Qing Li Department, each ministry is slightly different.

The Civil Service Department of the four ministries, namely the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, is set up according to functional categories. For example, the Civil Service Department is mainly responsible for official assessment and punishment, and the Military Military Selection Department is mainly responsible for the selection and award of military attachés. .

The setting up of the Department of Cleaning Officials in the Ministry of Husbandry and the Ministry of Punishment is different from the above four ministries. Each of the Ministry of Husbandry and the Ministry of Punishment has several departments responsible for cleaning up officials, which correspond to the affairs of a province. They are called the Department of Cleaning Officials in a certain province of the Ministry of Husbandry or the Ministry of Punishment. .

The chief officials of the Qing Li Department are Lang Zhong and Yuan Wai Lang. Among them, the fifth-grade Lang Zhong is the official leader of the Qing Li Department, and the fifth-rank Yuan Wai Lang is the deputy of the Lang Zhong. The number of Lang Zhong and Yuan Wai Lang assigned to each Qing Li Department is There is no capacity.

Below the Langzhong and Yuanwailang there are a series of lower-ranking official positions such as principal, ambassador, and deputy envoy.

The chief officer of the sixth rank is the official position second only to Langzhong and Yuanwailang in the Qing Dynasty official department. Each Qing official department is equipped with one or several chief officials.

Historically, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Hai Rui served as the head of the Yunnan Officials Department of the Ministry of Revenue, which was the official connecting the Ministry of Revenue with Yunnan Province. He was the person in charge of local affairs in Yunnan.

The reason why Zhu Gaoxu called together the doctors, Yuanwailang, and chief officials of the provincial officials' departments in the Ministry of Household Affairs and put them in charge of making statistical charts for each province was to increase the persuasiveness of the statistical charts.

After all, the provincial officials are responsible for local affairs in each province and are the officials in the capital who are most familiar with the number of permanent residents, acres of cultivated land and tax revenue in each province.

In this way, Zhu Di would not have doubts about the authenticity of the data on the chart.

The core purpose of Zhu Gaoxu's creation of this set of statistical charts was to stimulate Zhu Di and make him determined to reform the tax system.

He believed that Zhu Di would have a very intuitive understanding of the taxation situation of each province and county after seeing the comparison of various tax revenue charts of the twelve provinces in Beijing.

Especially after the maritime ban was lifted, maritime trade along the southeastern coast became more and more prosperous, but the commercial tax brought to the court was not obvious. It can be seen that there was a problem with the commercial tax system.

Moreover, the tax revenue of provinces such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Yunnan is far lower than that of Huguang, Zhejiang and other provinces. The fundamental reason is not that there is insufficient arable land, but that the population is lower than that of the southeastern coastal provinces.

When using statistical charts to analyze the number of taxes collected in the first year of Yongle, the number of taxes in each province can be turned into a graph to facilitate Zhu Di to read the initial number faster and improve Zhu Di's understanding of the number of taxes.

Since there is less text content on the statistical charts, there is no need for text description and text layout. The text in the charts is often only used to explain or mark the source of the data, or more important titles, etc. Therefore, the results of the tax number analysis are less important in presentation. More concise and clear.

"Yesterday morning, I listened to the report from Yu Xin, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and felt that this year was a good year, and I was very proud of it."

Zhu Di had to sigh: "But after looking at your statistical chart, I feel that the court's tax revenue is still too low!"

The Ming Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue, in terms of currency alone, is about 300 million taels of silver.

Because most of the tax revenue is collected in the form of grain payments, the average annual fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is about 2000 million taels when all land taxes, salt taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, banknote duties, and corvee are converted into cash.

Historically, the peak of Ming Dynasty tax revenue occurred in the 30th year of Wanli, reaching 2000, 95 million taels.

"Based on the cultivated land that has been cultivated throughout the Ming Dynasty, and the national land tax plus industrial and commercial taxes, salt, and mining monopoly, the annual income should be more, but why is the actual situation lower than the estimated amount?"

Zhu Di looked at the chart and frowned in thought.

"The imperial tax is divided into land tax and industrial and commercial tax. As the bulk of the tax, land tax directly determines the amount of tax revenue the court receives throughout the year. The use of land determines how much land tax the court can receive."

Zhu Gaoxu then said: "This dynasty implements a low-salary policy, and scientific examinations and studies are very expensive. Therefore, the emperor has given the privilege of reducing taxes and exempting from corvee to serving officials, officials who have become officials and those who have achieved fame."

Rent or tax is a land tax.

Yong is a corvee, that is, working as an errand for the government.

Corvee service in the past dynasties was far more terrifying than land rent. Sima Guang once said: "Some people died because of service, but there were no people who died because of wealth."

This statement almost tells the crux of all the financial revenue of the past dynasties.

"As far as I know, the chiefs of Li and Jia need to go to the county government to answer duties, and the chiefs of Li and Jia bear the important task of collecting taxes."

"If the local government owes taxes, the chiefs of Li and Jia must advance the payment first. In this case, some people will definitely think of deserting. Those with many families will be divided into households, and those with many fields will have their land parcels sent to other households."

"The common people did not want to be good citizens, so they thought of ways to become slaves to the officials and gentry. This was called 'sacrifice.' Some people said that there were ten ten pieces of land in the world, seven percent belonged to the gentry, two percent belonged to the lord, and one percent was turned over to taxes. "

Zhu Di understood.

The Ming Dynasty had a vast territory, and although the cultivated land in the territory was vast, the land available for the court to collect taxes was limited. Even if the court increased taxes, it would be useless, not to mention that there were officials who would use their hands to line their own pockets.

Zhu Gaoxu actually wanted to talk about the hidden dangers of the military garrison system, but it was not time yet.

Zhu Yuanzhang started from scratch and relied on the military garrison system to conquer the world. He once said, "I have a million soldiers in the capital, so that the people will not waste a grain of rice."

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang promoted farming on a large scale across the country and ordered "the defense posts all over the world should divide their troops for farming."

The military settlements did play a great role in the beginning, but over time, their shortcomings were gradually exposed.

In the early Yongle period, the military garrison tax and grain accounted for 18% of the total tax and grain. This ratio was already very high. By the [-]th year of Yongle, it had dropped to nearly [-]%.

Although foreign military wars during the Yongle period continued to affect military settlements, what really affected the military settlement system was the arbitrary occupation of land by the powerful elites of the dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Ji, Minister of War, led troops in the southwest region. He wrote to the court: "The twenty guard posts in Guizhou have nearly one million acres of farmland, and the harvested grains are enough for the officers and soldiers. However, the law of farmland has been abolished for a long time, and it is useless." With a false reputation, the fertile land is occupied by wealthy officials, and the grains harvested are less than one in a hundred. The poor soldiers have no land to cultivate, their wives are cold and exhausted, and they are unable to make a living!"

When the eunuch Wang Gui was guarding Shaanxi, he occupied more than a hundred hectares of farmland for the army, and nearly a thousand soldiers from the Ming army guard station were forced to farm for him.

After the military settlements became the private farmland of dignitaries, military wars that once cost the common people no more than a grain of rice eventually evolved into the straw that broke the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, the "Three Major Wanli Expeditions" cost 700 million taels for the campaign to aid Korea alone, 200 million taels for the Ningxia campaign, and at least 200 million taels for the Bozhou campaign. Even the subsequent Liaodong War and domestic civil unrest all cost a large amount of money. Consumption of military expenditures.

At this time, Zhu Di shouted outside the hall: "Li Xing?"

Li Xing, the young eunuch of the inner-official prison, bowed and walked in quickly, bowed and said, "My servant is here."

"Go and tell Xia Yuanji and Zhuo Jing, the left and right ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs, to the Wenhua Hall and wait." Zhu Di opened his mouth and gave instructions.

Zhu Gaoxu immediately said, "Dad, Xia Yuanji is off today and Zhuo Jing has left work. Although the heavy snow has stopped, the road is not easy to walk. It will probably be dark when the two of them enter the palace."

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, officials took a break once every ten days, which was called "ten days off", and students who were studying also had a complete holiday from then on.

The first is the ten-day holiday, which takes ten days off, which is equivalent to the double holidays in later generations.

The second is the field holiday, which lasts for about a month in the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year when the wheat is ripe in the north. The students go home and go to the fields to cut wheat, which is equivalent to the summer vacation in later generations.

Finally, there is the clothing-giving holiday. "Giving clothes" means "giving clothes in the seventh month, giving clothes in September". It is almost late autumn in the ninth month of the lunar calendar and the weather has turned cold. Students go home to pick up newly made winter clothes. The clothing-giving holiday lasts for Nearly a month is equivalent to the winter vacation in later generations.

By the Yuan Dynasty, all ten-day holidays and festival holidays disappeared, and the number of holidays throughout the year was reduced to sixteen days.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang streamlined the holidays to only three days a year, which were the Zhengdan Festival, the Winter Solstice Festival and the Wanshou Festival.

After the founding of the Yuan Dynasty in Yongle, Zhu Di resumed holidays on a large scale to show the new emperor's benevolence. There were three days of ten-day holidays every month, plus traditional festivals such as Zhengdan, Shangyuan and Zhongyuan, forming a holiday system that lasted for hundreds of years. .

At present, Zhu Di was anxious to understand the finances of the Ming Dynasty, and automatically ignored the practical issue of officials having ten-day rest.After listening to Zhu Gaoxu's addition, he said to Li Xing: "The house of Yu Xin, the Minister of Hubu, is closest to the palace. You can bring someone to carry the sedan chair and invite him."

"The slaves obey the orders!"

Li Xing respectfully accepted the order and retreated.

Zhu Di's practice of inviting Yu Xin, the Minister of Revenue, into the palace in a sedan chair once again refreshed Zhu Gaoxu's understanding of Zhu Di, a workaholic.

He originally wanted to persuade Zhu Di to discuss tax matters with senior officials from the Ministry of Revenue another day, but then he thought, since Zhu Di was interested in it, why should he be a spoiler?

What's more, there are indeed many omissions in the Ming Dynasty's taxation. Yu Xin, the minister of the Ministry of Users, told Zhu Di about these problems, and the effect was far more obvious than what Zhu Gaoxu had raised.

"Let's go, father and son, we will go to the Wenhua Hall and wait."

While Zhu Di was speaking, he stood up and left the dragon bed.

"Yes." Zhu Gaoxu said respectfully.

After half an hour.

"The old minister pays his respects to His Majesty."

Yu Xin entered the Wenhua Hall and quickly bowed and saluted.

"Yu Qing is exempt from courtesy." Zhu Di helped Yu Xin up and said, "I called Yu Qing this time because I have something to ask for advice."

Yu Xin said quickly: "I don't dare to take this seriously. If your majesty asks something, I will tell you everything I know."

"Why do some people say that the tax revenue of this dynasty is not as good as that of the Song Dynasty?" Zhu Di asked bluntly.

In fact, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was not lower than that of the early Song Dynasty at the beginning, but after the tax on salt, wine, and tea increased in the middle and late Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty began to be lower than that of the Song Dynasty, but the gap was not large.

The fundamental reason why the subsequent income was lower than that of the Song Dynasty was that the Ming Dynasty's taxation did not increase for a long time, but had a downward trend.

The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty showed an overall growth trend from the founding of Hongwu to the Yongle period, but began to decline since the late Yongle period.

"Reporting to your majesty, the territory of the two Song Dynasties is far less vast than that of the Ming Dynasty, but their average annual taxes converted into silver are not much different from this dynasty." Yu Xindao.

"Why is this?" Zhu Di asked.

"Your Majesty, the prosperity of commerce in the Song Dynasty was much higher than that of agriculture. Because the Song Dynasty did not restrict land annexation, a large amount of private land was annexed. Many people had to change their profession to become handicraftsmen in order to make a living. This in turn promoted the prosperity of commerce in the Song Dynasty."

"In addition, the Song Dynasty also canceled the curfew, so the city's downtown business was extremely prosperous at night, and the number of commercial towns in the country far exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty. The prosperity of its commerce brought huge commercial taxes to the Song Dynasty."

"Emperor Taizu Gao hated merchants. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he implemented a policy of focusing on agriculture and suppressing business, so merchants had a lower status in the dynasty. During the Hongwu period, the imperial court implemented a sea ban policy, which made it difficult for merchants in this dynasty to do business with overseas countries. Taxes are significantly reduced.”

Some people in later generations explained that the commercial tax rate in the DPRK was very low, so there was not much commercial tax to collect.

In fact, there are many types of commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty, and their types have gradually increased since the founding of the country.

The prevailing commercial tax rates at that time were mostly one for ten taxes, one for twenty, or one for thirty.

Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had the smallest territory. Agricultural taxes were the most difficult to collect. Industrial taxes (mining, shipbuilding, military industry, weaving, kiln smelting, burning, papermaking and other handicrafts) were even miniscule, so he collected goods for transportation. Business taxes such as tax and warehouse storage tax have become the focus.

So Zhu Yuanzhang established official stores within his jurisdiction, monopolized transportation, storage and other industries, and implemented low taxes.

After occupying Jiqing (Yingtian) and becoming the King of Wu, he changed the name of the official store to the Propaganda Department, and the official stores in various places were changed to the Tongke Department to levy taxes on passing ships and goods brought by merchants.

Because merchants' goods were piled up outside the city and they were often exploited and extorted by officials, Zhu Yuanzhang built stores near the water outside the gates of Sanshan. This was called a "collapsed house."

When goods from merchants from all over the country are stored in "collapsed houses", they will be charged one-thirtieth of the tax, one-thirtieth of the intermediary fee, and one-thirtieth of the storage fee, which is a total of one-tenth.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the policy of monopolizing the dental industry (intermediary industry).

One is the "official teeth" or official stores run by the government, the typical representative of which is the "collapsed house".

The second one is the yamen that manages foreign trade. The Yaxing organization established within the Municipal Shipping Department is mainly responsible for the exchanges between the yamen and local merchants and foreign businessmen.

Third, it is a private dental, but you must pay taxes and obtain a dental license (business license), which is valid for one year.

At first, Zhu Yuanzhang banned private dental shops, but due to multiple problems such as obstruction of commercial circulation, the relevant ban was later lifted.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty in history, with the prosperity of agriculture, various cash crops and transportation industry gradually developed, industrial and commercial taxes began to increase.By the middle and late Wanli period, commercial tax had become one of the main taxes of the Ming Dynasty.

But unfortunately, due to collusion between officials and businessmen, the court was unable to collect taxes from big businessmen, resulting in the loss of most of the tax revenue. It could only attack small and medium-sized businessmen, which inevitably caused public resentment.

"Of course, taxation in the Song Dynasty has always been heavier than in this dynasty. Not only were the taxes heavy, but there were many types of taxes. Although the tax revenue of the Song Dynasty was very high, private rice prices, cloth prices, etc. have also been rising."

Yu Xin was afraid of making Zhu Di unhappy, so he added: "The lives of most people have not been improved because of Song Ting's wealth, especially when Song Ting also borne huge war compensation payments."

Zhu Di asked in a deep voice: "Does Yu Qing know about the donation?"

Yu Xindao: "Your Majesty, the Yuan Dynasty was in chaos, many books were lost, and land taxes were inaccurate. After Emperor Taizu founded the country, he sent Zhou Zhu and other 64 people to check the acres of land in western Zhejiang and determine their taxes. He ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to verify the land and fields in the world. And two The wealthy people in Zhejiang were afraid of avoiding corvee labor, so they often sent their land to other households, which was called iron-legged and treacherous. Over time, it became a common practice, and the villages bullied the prefectures and counties, and the state and county governments were full of treachery. They were called treacherous people. As a result, the rich became richer. The poor get poorer.”

"Of course, there is also pervasive corruption, such as local officials taking advantage of the sky and the emperor's distance, corrupting money and taxing rice and wheat, and the military taking empty pay and embezzling grain from military villages."

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court spent 2000 million taels of silver on military salaries, accounting for almost two-thirds of the year's income.

At that time, military pay was nominally distributed to more than 120 million soldiers, but in fact the real total number of soldiers was less than 50, and the remaining more than 70 soldiers were all falsely reported.

"How dare you say that!" Zhu Di sighed.

Yu Xin said: "I am neither clique nor selfish. Besides, your Majesty is a sage. If you have any questions, I have to speak up."

Zhu Di nodded and said: "Yu Qing knows far more than I imagined!"

Yu Xin responded in silence.

"Come here, give me a seat and serve tea." Zhu Di ordered Li Xing.

After Yu Xin sat down, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu also sat down one after another.

Zhu Di picked up the hot tea, took a sip, and then asked Yu Xin: "I want to increase the revenue of the treasury, but I don't want to hurt the people. What good ideas does Yu Qing have?"

Yu Xin thought for a moment and said: "After your Majesty lifts the maritime ban, the Ming Dynasty will surely resume prosperous maritime trade. Why not take this opportunity to innovate the industrial and commercial taxes?"

"I would like to hear the details." Zhu Di said.

Zhu Gaoxu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The topic of this discussion finally reached the key point!

(End of this chapter)