At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 694: Freedom from Land Tax and Indian Labor

August 55, 10th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City, Jianzhang Palace.

The Three Dukes and Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty court, as well as the governors of the nine ministers' offices and counties in various places, spent three full days reporting their achievements for the year. Although the data were boring, the sages, representatives of princes, and outstanding representatives of the Han Dynasty present all listened very carefully. Through these data, they could feel that the Han Dynasty was becoming more and more powerful. The Three Dukes and Nine Ministers of the court reporting their achievements to them also allowed them to feel that they were participating in the management of the country, experience the common growth with the country, and enhance their sense of ownership.

After reporting last year’s achievements, the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty submitted their plans for the next year.

Grand Minister of Agriculture Feng Tang said to the wise men, "After more than ten years of efforts by the court, the land tax in 50 counties along the Han border has been completely exempted. Now only the counties in Hebei, Central Plains, and Jiangnan are required to pay the land tax. However, the land tax in the Han Dynasty only accounts for % of the court's income, and the collection of this grain accounts for one-tenth of the court's administrative work. The annual consumption of grain collection is greater than the grain itself. The land tax has become a livelihood for the local areas. The court's collection of land tax has done more harm than good."

"In the Han Dynasty, farmers generally earn less than craftsmen, and their welfare benefits are far inferior to those of urban residents. Reducing farmers' land tax will help increase their income and reduce the gap between urban and rural areas." Feng Tang then said to the wise men present: "I thought that the land tax that had lasted for thousands of years was ended during the Han Dynasty."

As soon as Feng Tang finished speaking, the scene became noisy.

Zhao Yu sighed: "We, the Han Dynasty, have really done it by not collecting land tax!"

Even though he had watched the Han Dynasty step by step reach its current state, he still felt incredible. From the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the present day, the income from farmland has always been the most direct manifestation of the rise and fall of a dynasty. The Han Dynasty was the only dynasty in 3000 years that did not allow farmers to pay taxes.

Gongsun Hong also said excitedly: "The prosperity of our Han Dynasty is extremely great, and such a prosperous era must leave a deep mark."

He knew that what happened today would be recorded in history, and he even looked at Feng Tang with envy. In order to exempt the land tax, the Han Dynasty had gone through the efforts of four generations of prime ministers and spent more than 4 years. Most of the credit was taken by Feng Tang.

The thought of replacing him arose in his mind.

Liu Heng smiled complacently and said, "Such a prosperous era was established by us. Isn't life magnificent?"

Then he looked at Deng Tongdao and said, "We are already old, but the great cause created by the Han Dynasty cannot be corrupted. You must inherit this cause well."

Deng Tong saluted solemnly and said, "Yes!"

After hearing this, Zhuo Wangsun, the representative of the wise men of Shu County, smiled and said to Kuai Xu: "After all, the court has us in its heart."

Zhuo Wangsun's steel plant mainly manufactures farm tools. With high income, naturally there will be more money to buy his products. Kuai Xu has many tea gardens and orchards in Jiangnan, and has signed supply agreements with a large number of farmers. Even without counting these, the farmers have more money in their hands, which is also a good thing for the Jiangnan money houses, as the farmers can deposit more money in his money houses.

The representatives of the farming sages were even more excited. In fact, the land tax of the Han Dynasty had been decreasing since Zhou Bo became prime minister. From the initial 30% land tax, it was reduced to 10% after Zhou Bo's ten years of efforts. Then, during the 25 years of the three prime ministers Li Shang, Chen Rui and Chen Lei, more than half of the counties in the Han Dynasty no longer collected land tax.

In fact, as early as 10 years ago, the income from farmland accounted for only about 5% of the total fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty. To the Han court at that time, the income from land tax was already a chicken rib that was tasteless to eat and could be thrown away.

However, for the local areas, this income is small, but indispensable, because the Han officials in the countryside rely on this income to maintain basic operations. Without land tax, the local counties will have to support these petty officials, and expenses will skyrocket. However, these petty officials in the countryside are the most basic managers of the Han Dynasty. Without them, the Han Dynasty will be in the embarrassing situation of imperial power not reaching the countryside.

During the years that Feng Tang served as the Minister of Agriculture, he had been coordinating between the imperial court and local governments on the allocation of expenses for supporting these Han officials. Ultimately, the imperial court handed over property taxes and part of the authority for construction to local counties. Local governments could offset this part of the expenses by renovating old urban areas and building new communities with the income from house sales and the property taxes collected each year.

Finally, the imperial court and local governments reached an agreement this year, so when Feng Tang told them that the land tax would be exempted, everyone actually expected it, and basically everyone who should know knew about it.

But when it really came to this, the people present were still extremely excited. The wise men today look back on the past thirty-five years and find that the Han Dynasty has made tremendous progress. Thirty-five years ago, the land tax accounted for a quarter of the court's expenditure. Even if the court had this idea at the time, it had no way to make up for this quarter of the fiscal expenditure.

But thirty-five years later, the income from land tax accounted for only 3% of the court's income. With such a clear contrast, one suddenly realized the earth-shaking changes that had taken place in the Han Dynasty in the past thirty-five years.

In the end, the decree to exempt land tax was passed unanimously by the wise men present.

After Feng Tang, Liu Heng also took the stage and said, "After the development of internal combustion engines and electric motors in our Han Dynasty, the second scientific and technological revolution has already broken out. In order to guide the industrial development of various counties, the court has formulated the Industrial 2.0 plan. The court adheres to the basic policy of "innovation-driven, quality first, structural optimization, and talent-based", and adheres to the basic principles of "market-led, court-guided, based on the present, focusing on the long-term, overall promotion, key breakthroughs, independent development, open cooperation", focusing on the strategic goal of achieving a manufacturing power, ~~~~~~~~."

Gongsun Hong listened to Liu Heng's speech. He could understand every word, but he was confused when he put them together. He roughly knew that the court wanted to promote new technologies, but he couldn't understand the rest. This made him feel uneasy. Even though he was over 40 years old, he still had a heart to rule the world. But if he couldn't even understand the court's policies, how could he make progress? Even if he had superb agricultural technology, it would be useless. Didn't he see that agricultural taxes only accounted for 3% of the Han Dynasty and were now completely exempted? The direction of the court's industrial development was a problem for him, but he didn't know why.

Gongsun Hong pulled Zhao Yu aside and asked in a low voice, "Brother, what is Young Master Liu talking about?"

Zhao Yu said: "It is the industrial upgrade that the court has been doing. The only difference is that the court used to focus on steam engines, but now it is replacing steam engines with internal combustion engines and electric motors. To put it simply, Liu Shaofu is telling us not to make steam engines anymore. If we want to make steam engines, we should make internal combustion engines, electric motors and supporting industries. The court will provide policy and financial support for these industries."

Gongsun Hong said helplessly: "I need to study hard, otherwise I won't understand the country's policies."

Zhao Yu said: "When you have free time, you can go to Mozi College, the Political Affairs College of the Han Dynasty to attend classes. You have good learning ability, but you have been in the countryside for too long and don't know much about new things, especially in the field of industrial development. Now in the Han Dynasty, if you want to make progress, you must understand the development of the industry."

Gongsun Hong nodded in approval. He thought he was no worse than anyone else. He just didn't understand these things. Once he understood them, he would be able to master them quickly.

The other sages were in a similar situation. Only big merchants like Zhuo Wangsun and Kuai Xu could understand the information.

Zhuo Wangsun said: "Chen County has been vigorously promoting automobiles recently. From the perspective of practicality, they are much better than Changan's trams, tractors, and steam cars. Brother, should we invest in them?"

For big merchants like Zhuo Wangsun, the policies issued by the court at the Assembly of Sages are all money-making information.

Kuai Xu frowned and said, "The management of Chen County is too strict. The four horses share the profits. We can only take 25% of the profits. It is not a place for us to make a fortune."

It's just a small profit, you can make more money from anywhere, why go to Chen County to suffer? It's obviously an industry that I invested in myself, but I don't even have the qualifications to manage it.

The current Chen County can be said to be the foundation of Mohism. After decades of consolidation and progress, Chen County has become 70% of what Xu Fan remembered in his later life. There are a large number of heavy industrial areas such as steel and machinery, and there are many factories and craftsmen. The income gap in Chen County is the smallest in the entire Han Dynasty. At the same time, Chen County is also the place with the most rigorous organization of craftsmen in the entire Han Dynasty, with the largest citizen class in the entire Han Dynasty, and various Mohist organizations serve the millions of craftsmen in Chen County.

The question that people who live here like to ask most is "Which unit are you from?" It is a strict city full of conventions. In this city, the most respected and powerful people are always the master craftsmen who stand at the top of millions of craftsmen. This is the city in the entire Han Dynasty that best reflects that craftsmen are the masters.

It was just a city of craftsmen at that time, but it displeased the merchants of the Han Dynasty. The taxes were too high, the management was too strict, and the profits were too little. The bigger the merchants, the more they hated the environment of Chen County.

On the contrary, small and medium-sized merchants prefer the atmosphere of Chenjun, because as long as they become a link in the Chenjun industrial chain, their income becomes very stable, and it can even be said that they are guaranteed to have a stable income regardless of drought or flood. It can even be said that they are incorporated into the unit.

Small and medium-sized merchants in Chen County only need to ensure product quality and manage the R&D team to meet the above technical requirements, and then they can deliver goods and pay for them, which is easy and comfortable. They go deep into the industrial chain and only need to do the part they are proficient in.

But in other places, it is normal for big factories to suppress small factories, big merchants to suppress small merchants, and even for big fish to eat small fish. Those small and medium-sized merchants have a lot to worry about. They have to find orders themselves, and after they find orders, they have to worry about whether the upstream factories are scammers. They have to find big factories, deal with kickbacks, hold back goods, guard against nitpicking, and all kinds of messy things to deal with one after another, which wastes a lot of energy and doesn't make much money.

Only the big merchants who occupied the top of the industry could easily eat up most of the profits of an industry, but because of the institutional restrictions of Chen County, they had to distribute a large amount of profits to craftsmen, technical masters, and shopkeepers. They spent money and effort, but only got a small part. In the eyes of these big merchants, the system of Chen County was exploiting them to please the craftsmen.

Therefore, factory owners in Chen County who have certain capital and ambition will go to Kuaiji County in the south to start a new business. Kuaiji County has fewer restrictions on merchants and can connect to global trade routes, making it a good place to start a business. Of course, the competition in Kuaiji County is also the most intense. The success of a general is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers, and most of the entrepreneurial factory owners become part of the sacrifice.

On the contrary, Han Anguo, who was sitting in the seat of the county governor's representative, was overjoyed. The Industry 2.0 launched by the imperial court meant great wealth to them. The automobiles they developed were an industry that the imperial court must strongly support. If they wanted to grow and develop, with the policy support of the imperial court and the financial support of the banks, coupled with Chen County's technological advantages, automobiles would surely become the new industrial core of Chen County.

Then, Yuan Ang, the construction commissioner, came on stage and explained that the Han court would build 20 small and medium-sized dams in the next five-year plan. On the one hand, they would meet the Han Dynasty's demand for electricity, on the other hand, they would improve the capacity of the Han Dynasty's navigation canals, and finally solve the irrigation needs of hundreds of millions of acres of farmland.

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The governor of Shu County, Guan He, was overjoyed. With the imperial court's policy, his chances of passing the project by building several small and medium-sized dams increased greatly. Other governors of other counties with rivers were also eager to try. It was naturally a good thing to use the imperial court's money to build projects for their counties. However, there are now hundreds of counties in the Han Dynasty. The imperial court's plan is to build 20 dams, with only a % chance of success, which requires fierce competition.

Representatives of the princes like Dong Zhongshu were full of envy. Only the Han court had such strong financial resources to exempt the land tax. It was impossible for them to do so. These vassal states did not have much industrial base, and the bulk of their income came from agriculture.

They also do not have the financial resources to carry out multiple projects simultaneously. For example, in Tianzhu, not to mention the money for building dams, the cement production capacity alone can hardly meet the demand for building dams.

However, while he was envious, he also found a way for Tianzhu to establish the five small industries quickly, efficiently and economically, which was to purchase a large number of factories that had abandoned backward production capacity.

After the meeting ended that day, the emperor's attendants found Dong Zhongshu and took him to the Zhangtai Palace where the emperor was.

"Your Majesty, I, Dong Zhongshu, pay my respects to you!" Dong Zhongshu bowed immediately when he saw the emperor.

Xu Aimin said: "No need to be polite!"

Then he said, "How has Third Brother been doing these past two years?"

Dong Zhongshu replied: "My king is in good health and gave birth to a princess last year."

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "I have heard about what you have done in Tianzhu. Tianzhu's finances have turned from deficit to surplus. I never thought that you are so talented."

This is true. Dong Zhongshu looked like an old-fashioned Confucian scholar, but he changed his appearance after going to India. In India, he used the Legalist approach and cracked down on nobles, powerful people and corrupt officials. Judging from Dong Zhongshu's policies in India, it is not an exaggeration to say that he was a Legalist.

Dong Zhongshu said sternly: "Tianzhu is seriously ill. I can only use strong medicine."

Dong Zhongshu also wanted to implement Confucian benevolent governance, but the nobles and powerful people in India were too greedy, the monks were too powerful, and the people at the bottom were ignorant and scattered.

He could not suppress the powerful nobles of India without taking strong measures. However, after being reminded by the emperor, Dong Zhongshu wanted to recruit some Legalist scholars from the Han Dynasty to India. This matter should be left to professionals to do the dirty work, as he did not want to be accused of being a Legalist.

Xu Aimin said, "The main reason I came to you this time was because of the demonstration during the Sages' Conference. They told me that there are many illegal Indian workers in Chang'an. They have taken away jobs from the people of Chang'an and lowered the income of the craftsmen in Chang'an. I remember that among the princes of my Han Dynasty, the court issued the most labor permits to Indians, nearly 100,000. How come there are so many illegal workers in India?"

Xu Aimin didn't know this until he checked. He was shocked to find out that there were a large number of illegal Indian workers in the Han Dynasty. The number was uncountable, probably around 100,000, more than double the prescribed number.

Most of these Indians were concentrated in Kuaiji, Linzi, and Chang'an. The Han Dynasty was already in a period of industrial transformation, with a large number of unemployed craftsmen having to find new jobs. And yet so many illegal workers came to take up jobs. The Han Dynasty's system of reclamation had only been suspended for ten years, and most citizens still attached great importance to work. Now the Indians were stealing their wages and disrupting the labor market.

Chang'an has implemented an eight-hour work system and minimum wage for decades, but when these Indians came, they would work nine, ten, or even eleven or twelve hours, and sometimes they didn't ask for overtime pay, calling it voluntary overtime. These Indians were scabs, which directly affected the interests of the local people in Chang'an, which led to this demonstration.

Dong Zhongshu fell silent for a moment. If he said he didn't know, that would be a lie. He knew how much foreign exchange the Indian workers remitted every year.

This is the most important source of income for India. The local income in India is too low because the industry is not large-scale and most people are farmers. However, decades ago, Hu Hai distributed land equally in India, and the local farmers had a good life for more than a decade.

But the wealth that an agricultural society can produce is too little. Under the influence of the Han Dynasty, India's medical level has improved and its fertility rate has greatly increased. Now India's population has more than doubled compared to when Hu Hai first went to India. As the per capita farmland has decreased, farmers in India can only rent land from nobles to make a living. Most of their income has to be handed over, and the rest is enough to barely make ends meet.

But by going to the Han Dynasty, one could accumulate 3 coins of wealth in a year, which could support ten people in India. With such a huge income gap, the Indians naturally tried to find ways to enter the Han Dynasty.

However, there was no geographical isolation between the Han Dynasty and India. In the south, the Indians traveled by hiding in transport ships. In the north, they traveled by hanging on trains, all the way from the Western Regions Railway into Guanzhong. The illegal Indian workers in Chang'an City came from the Western Regions.

Working outside the country has become a tradition in India over the past few decades. During the Age of Exploration, the Han Dynasty gained the most lucrative benefits and occupied a large amount of land. To cultivate these lands, a large number of people were needed. India was a densely populated country. Starting from Hu Hai, a large number of Indians entered Southeast Asia, the New World, the Western Regions, etc. By working for the Han Dynasty, the Indians actually ate a few pieces of meat on their bones.

(End of this chapter)