People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 510: The policy of keeping the people ignorant is a bit anti-intellectual

For some women, asking him to go back and find someone to marry and raise children may be the greatest humiliation to him, just like for a woman like the queen mother, who only wants to be a king like a man.

He even wanted to do better than the king. He wanted to lead the entire Srivijaya to become more prosperous. He looked down on the so-called reforms of the new king and felt that there were the most poor people in the entire Srivijaya.

If taxes were only collected from the rich without collecting taxes from the poor people, it would not be enough to support the operation of the entire country of Srivijaya, so he scoffed at the king's reforms.

So he opposed the king's reforms, not only because the king's reforms touched their interests, but also because he looked down on the king's reforms in his heart and felt that they were unrealistic.

So when Xia Yuanji told him to find someone to marry, he also said to Xia Yuanji: "When you come here in the Ming Dynasty, you also want to implement the same reforms as the king, but have you ever thought that among the one million people in Sanfuqi, 99% are poor people.

Only the remaining tiny fraction are what you call the rich. If you only collect high taxes from the rich and only collect 60% to 70% of the taxes from the poor, sooner or later, you will not be able to support the operation of all the government offices in Sanfuqi because you cannot collect enough taxes from the rich. "

After listening to the empress dowager's words, Xia Yuanji had a slightly different opinion of her. At least this woman knew a little about finance, and she might even have done some research on the micro aspects. Otherwise, he wouldn't know how much silver was needed to support the operations of the various government offices.

Then, in order to show off in front of Xia Yuanji, the Queen Mother did have some research on this aspect, and immediately said: "If the government offices below do not have enough money to maintain their operation, it can indeed reduce the court's expenditure on the government offices to a certain extent. It seems that the court has gained something, and the people do not need to pay so much taxes.

However, these government offices may not have enough money to support their daily operations or sometimes have to deal with emergencies.

When the people need them, these government offices will no longer provide convenience to the people, and in fact it is the people who will be harmed in the end.

This balance needs to be mastered to ensure that the local government offices can run smoothly, but at the same time, these government offices cannot burden the national treasury and collect more taxes from the people. "

After listening to the Queen Mother's words, Xia Yuanji began to re-examine the woman in front of him. To be honest, he did underestimate this woman at the beginning.

He felt that this woman had a very short-sighted political vision, and even the so-called political conspiracy was nothing more than a child's play in his eyes.

However, the Empress Dowager's understanding of economics was definitely more thorough than many officials of the Ming Dynasty.

Many Confucian civil servants believed that low taxes were best for the people, but the opposite was true.

Taxes are like a balance beam. They cannot be too much or too little. They can only maintain a balanced state.

In other words, taxes must be either too heavy or too light, which is not conducive to the development of the country. Only by maintaining a balance can we be healthiest.

The Queen Mother said so much just to tell Xia Yuanji that Xia Yuanji's so-called reforms and the king's reforms were wrong, and that too much tax should not be paid by the rich.

Because of the relationship between the number of people, the number of rich people is definitely lower than the number of ordinary people. If we only pay taxes to the rich and the ordinary people do not pay taxes, it will be a huge mistake.

Don’t think that low taxes are good for the people. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The people want to live a better life, so maintaining a certain level of taxes and keeping local government offices operating normally is best for them.

Only when local government offices are run in a healthy and smooth manner can the rights and interests of the people be protected to the greatest extent.

On the contrary, once the salaries of local government offices are too low, they will find ways to exploit the people. In this vicious cycle, the people themselves are the majority of the victims.

After the Queen Mother finished speaking, it was the first time that Xia Yuanji met someone who had such a deep understanding of taxes, especially a woman, and a woman in a remote country in Southeast Asia.

So I was also interested in discussing the so-called tax relationship with her.

He said to the Queen Mother: "You are right. Taxes are too low. It is not conducive to the rule of the court and the development of local government offices. In the end, the people will suffer.

So the reforms of your new king are a bit wishful thinking. They impose all taxation obligations on the rich, and the people do not pay taxes at all. This is wrong.

But his idea was correct. Because the base of the common people was large, the needs of the court could be met without heavy taxes.

And because the rich not only have money but also have a small base, they are powerless to resist if heavy taxes are imposed on them.

After all, only the common people who have nothing will rebel against you; there is absolutely no reason for the rich people who own fields and acres of land to rebel against you."

Xia Yuanji's words made Lan Yu and Wang Bi next to him agree with him, even though the country had been founded for twenty-five or twenty-six years.

But Lan Yu could still remember why his brother-in-law and His Majesty rebelled in the first place?

They are all poor people with no place to live. Their lives are going to die anyway. If they don't rebel, they will die. If they rebel, they will die too. So what will happen if they don't rebel?

On the contrary, it was the wealthy landlords who were hesitant and reluctant to give up this or that. They were reluctant to give up their fields and land outside, and also reluctant to give up the gold and silver in their own cellars.

It’s hard enough to even move house, let alone the situation where they have no future and no place to stay and can rebel and run around.

If we collect heavy taxes from these people, what can they do even if they are unhappy? How can they abandon their trees, fields, land, gold and silver on earth and join the rebellion? It is absolutely impossible. So in times of chaos, it is most appropriate to collect taxes from the rich landlords and rich merchants.

The common people do not have any room for you to exploit them. If you exploit them, they will rebel against you. There is no need for that.

After figuring this out, Lan Yu agreed with Xia Yuanji's statement.

Although the Queen Mother had always lived in a wealthy family, she deeply agreed with Xia Yuanji's words.

These families never think about overthrowing the king's rule or the negative aspects of a dynasty, but rather about how the dynasty can maintain long-term stability so that their own position can be consolidated and they can expand their wealth by leasing land and annexing other people's land.

Once the imperial court is unstable and wars are going on everywhere, even if the crops in the fields are growing well, will you be able to harvest them? They will only become fodder for the rebel army.

Then Xia Yuanji said to him, "As for what you said, we can't collect taxes from the rich, but only from the poor, because the poor have a large base and collecting taxes from them can more easily meet the needs of the court, which is even more absurd." The Queen Mother was not convinced: "But collecting taxes from the poor can easily meet the needs of collecting taxes from the rich. There are so few of them, how can we guarantee that we can collect taxes and meet the needs of the court?"

Xia Yuanji said slowly: "Set a certain ratio. Whether it's that ordinary people only have to pay about 60% of the taxes or the rich pay 50 to 100 times the taxes, there is a ratio issue."

Perhaps the Queen Mother knew what Xia Yuanji wanted to say, so when Xia Yuanji mentioned the proportion issue, she immediately sneered.

"Grand Commander, perhaps you are still young and have never seen all kinds of people. Although some people may seem honest on weekdays, they have all kinds of excuses to shirk their responsibilities when it comes to paying taxes. As for the so-called ratio issue you mentioned, believe it or not, some people deliberately make the ratio neither too high nor too low.

They will definitely think about how to keep their wealth at the top of the poor and the lowest point of the rich.

So how do you get them to pay more taxes?"

In the eyes of the Queen Mother, setting the ratio is to give some opportunists opportunities to take advantage of loopholes. She hates these people who take advantage of loopholes the most, so she often takes a one-size-fits-all approach regardless of your background. What kind of person are you? If I decide that you are poor, you are poor. If I decide that you are rich, you are rich. You have to pay according to this standard.

As a result, in a place like Sanfuqi, there are people who are poor for generations and there are big families for generations. Even if the family's business fails and declines, they still do not need to pay much taxes.

Because this tradition cannot be broken. Once it is broken, there will be a large group of wealthy people who will feel insecure.

The Queen Mother always felt that these wealthy people had the greatest power. It would be very troublesome to offend them, but it would be easy to solve the problem if you offended an ordinary citizen.

Even if they are forced to rebel, we only need to send out troops to suppress them.

Hearing the Queen Mother say this, he burst into laughter. Even at this time he felt that this woman's short-sightedness was revealed.

Setting this ratio is just as the Queen Mother said, there will definitely be many people who are stuck in a position neither high nor low just to pay less taxes.

But Xia Yuanji explained, "Why not let you, a woman, find someone to marry and live a peaceful life while you are still young? You are really not suitable for governing the country.

As you said, some people are deliberately stuck in this position in order to evade taxes, but Queen Mother, I want to ask you, if all of you one million people can be stuck at the top of the poor and the bottom of the rich, do you know how much tax these one million people can pay?"

When Xia Yuanji's groundbreaking thinking appeared in front of the Queen Mother's ears, she was stunned. She didn't expect there was such an idea.

Xia Yuanji said again, "If a population of one million can be stuck at this point, then for the world it means that the great harmony that Confucius talked about has been realized. Everyone will be rich, everyone can have food to eat, and the world will be peaceful.

In order to control this wealth and prevent it from falling or rising, they even have to plan their lives carefully and must never let their livelihoods fall, nor let their livelihoods rebound.

If every citizen has this ability, that is, every citizen has the ability to produce, and the entire country has such people, then not only will the national strength increase, but the country will also be peaceful and the people will be safe. You actually still despise it, I really don’t understand. ”

When Xia Yuanji said this, the empress dowager felt as if a new door had been opened. Before, the empress dowager had always been trying to guard against the common people who were too well fed and had too much free time, and she thought that the common people would think nonsense.

But Xia Yuanji told her another idea. If the imperial court could ensure that the common people had enough food to eat every day, warm clothes to wear every day, and free time to chat every day, would the common people really be bored and want to visit and play?
Which common people have such abnormal brains? They don't want to enjoy the peaceful years, but instead think about being powerful and becoming the emperor after having enough food and drink.

These ordinary people definitely have problems with their brains, and they are not the ones who have the ability to protect their wealth.

Human beings are animals that always seek benefits and avoid harm. Unless they are forced into desperate situations, they will never easily give up a stable life.

Everyone has a wife, children and elderly parents, and is not single. Everyone can have food to eat, wear warm clothes, chat with neighbors, and play chess and chat under the old locust tree. Who is willing to put his head on the belt and fight for a future that he doesn't know whether it will be better than the present?

Even in a business like rebellion, there is no turning back. It's either success or death. Even if you participate in a rebellion and succeed, you may not be the one in charge. The person you hate the most may become the emperor.

He will exploit you even more because you succeeded in the rebellion with him, he has seen your ability, and he even wants to kill you.

Just because he is afraid that you will oppose him as you opposed the previous dynasty.

Why did Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, kill so many capable founding generals when he was paving the way for his descendants and grandchildren?
There is no other reason. It is not because these founding generals committed this crime or that crime. Just because you have the ability to rebel, you deserve to die.

Why would ordinary people do such a thing?
But some people just can't figure this out. They always think that once ordinary people eat too much and read too many books, they will definitely have all kinds of wild thoughts.

Therefore, many times the emperors would try every possible means to implement policies to keep the people ignorant, so that the common people would live like stupid puppets.

But on the contrary, once ordinary people read books and understand the truth, their thinking will become more open, they will have more wild thoughts and more concerns.

Why do people say that it takes three years for a scholar to rebel but it will not succeed?

It’s not that the scholar is not smart enough, but that he is too smart and thinks too much.

He is not like the reckless warrior who has no brains and believes whatever others say. Such people are more easily deceived.

On the contrary, if everyone can read, everyone is literate, and everyone has a high IQ, they will be less likely to believe what others say and will be more likely to firmly believe that they are right.

Such people are difficult to be deceived, difficult to form a group, and difficult to succeed in a real rebellion.

I just don’t know why these fisherman policies have to be implemented throughout the dynasties.

In fact, popularizing education and technology is the most useful for world stability...

(End of this chapter)