New Shun 1730

Liu Yu's words were pure nonsense, and he was just talking nonsense.

How could the Dashun court have the guts to reduce rent and interest and redeem in 30 years?

But given the political correctness of the Confucian scholars at that time, Liu Yu would definitely not be able to win the argument on this basis. Fortunately, the great Confucian scholars of the Northern School came up with such a fantasy of redemption in 30 years, using magic to fight magic and using well-field to fight annexation, at least they can still take advantage of the words.

Where is China's way out? History has given an answer. It's just that this question was advanced by 200 years. Was there another way to go 200 years ago?

Liu Yu felt that if the first way was a backup, then he could try the second way. If it doesn't work, how bad can it be worse than the foundation after the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895?

However, this second way is a bit unrighteous.

For example, what is considered "progress" in Songjiang Prefecture now?

Small farmers went bankrupt, went to work in factories, and if they couldn't take it anymore, they cut sugarcane and rubbed cinnamon in Nanyang, or were forced to go to Nanyang to cultivate and pay off debts.

This... is "progress".

There is a technique to force small farmers to go bankrupt.

Don't be too hasty. If you are too hasty, Dashun will be fully reactive, and the power of the new class is simply not capable of suppressing a peasant uprising larger than that of the late Ming Dynasty.

Take it slowly, little by little.

For example, the low grain prices in Songjiang Prefecture, such as the monetary tax in Songjiang Prefecture, which gradually made small farmers lose their livelihoods.

Either go to the city to be hired workers; or be signed as contract slaves... or called contract long-term workers, because the Dashun law stipulates that slaves cannot be kept, so they cannot be called slaves, but long-term workers, and then go to Nanyang to work.

If the people are not forced to have no way to live, who would be willing to leave their homes and go to Nanyang with a very high mortality rate?

But you can't force too many people to have no way to live at one time, because if you force too many at one time, there is another way of "eating his mother, drinking his mother, and not paying taxes after equalizing the land".

This requires the policymakers to have more sophisticated governance methods.

But certainly, there is no policy of reducing rent and interest for thirty years of redemption.

In short, what Liu Yu and these gentry said was just a lip service and could not be done at all.

This lip service scared these gentry. Everyone knows that Liu Yu has a bad reputation and acts like a fool. The emperor is also favored. Who knows if he can really do such a "harmful" thing?

Dashun dare not implement the principle of "land to the tiller". Everyone knows this.

However, the issue of permanent tenancy and rent reduction has been called for by the grassroots in recent years. The uprisings that broke out in the late Ming Dynasty to fight for permanent tenancy rights and rent and interest reduction were also concentrated in the south.

In recent years, the radical idea of ​​leveling the difference between the rich and the poor in the world, which has been harmless by the Dashun idol, has been curbed, but the more benevolent call for permanent tenancy and rent reduction has been circulating.

Perpetual rent reduction is fine, but this thirty-year redemption policy will completely dig up the roots of all the gentry in the world.

But logically speaking, there is no way to refute it.

Because in their view, the ultimate goal of the brain-problematic Confucian scholars in the north, such as Yan Xizhai and Li Gangzhu, is to restore the well-field system.

The thirty-year redemption is just a transition to restore the well-field system.

It is a process of "wells if you can, equal if you can't".

As a Confucian scholar, who can say that the well-field system is not the ultimate ideal? Under the ultimate ideal of the well-field system, the thirty-year redemption, the tiller has his own land, the land between heaven and earth and the people share the land between heaven and earth, and so on proposed by the great Confucian scholars of the northern school, cannot be said to be wrong under the ideological system of the Confucianism, which is a special petty bourgeoisie and small peasant feudal society that Liu Yu thinks is quite utopian.

Some people even proposed some transitional methods.

In addition to the redemption method and the permanent tenancy inheritance method of Yan Xizhai and Li Gangzhu, the rest of their school also proposed some very brain-opening ideas.

For example, increase the number of official fields, reduce taxes on official fields, and impose heavy taxes on private fields, so that the people will turn their private fields to official fields.

This is obviously inspired by the practice of small farmers serving gentry in the late Ming Dynasty.

Another example is to strictly define the status of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, so that farmers are farmers, craftsmen are craftsmen, and merchants are merchants. Only farmers can farm, and merchants cannot buy land, etc.

This is inspired by retro.

Or, all land is returned to the government, and a method similar to differential land rent is adopted.

However, they have only learned these scriptures and have no knowledge of economics. These brain-opening ideas are suitable for writing into the description of paradise on earth, but not for guiding practice.

In a word, their ideas are all nonsense.

In the end, it must be the patriarchal system of agriculture and the guild system of handicrafts.

To use the more euphemistic evaluation of later generations, this is called "subjective utopian socialists and objective reactionaries."

And they are extremely reactionary and ready to react all the way to the early feudal society.

However, this reactionary fantasy was a powerful weapon for the Dashun regime, and was most useful in frightening the gentry. Moreover, it was neither a "heresy" nor a "heresy", but a true fundamentalist and retro Confucianism that could denounce the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties.

Since they were all reading scriptures from two thousand years ago, whoever was retro was the most Confucian.

An older gentry had also read the Northern Confucian classics and said hurriedly: "Jinghou is joking. Since the Qin Dynasty opened Qianmo and Pojingtian, land is privately owned, and after the father dies, the son succeeds. This has been the rule for thousands of years." . The Confucian scholars in the north really don’t understand the theory of renting for ten years, and they are all nonsense. Isn’t this different from robbery?”

"The matter of renting is something you and I are willing to do. It's not forced. If you find it too expensive, you don't have to rent it. It's something that you and I are willing to do, and you really shouldn't care about it."

"If we do this, we will rob the rich and bring chaos to the world."

"What we want is to ban the import of rice and help the common people find a way out. In this way, the country will not be in turmoil and the country will not be endangered. All it takes is a clear document from the court to eliminate the grievances of the common people."

"Governing a big country is like cooking small dishes. How can we implement radical policies?"

"Farming is the foundation of the country, and business is the bottom line of the people. Now it is allowing merchants to benefit and small farmers to suffer, which is probably not good governance. Once the foundation of the country is shaken, this..."

The old squire said he was worried about the country and the people, but in his heart he was really worried about the country and the people. From a moral perspective, they are not necessarily all bad people, and they do not necessarily have any compassion or benevolence.

However, the feudal landlord crest on their butts cannot be wiped clean.

This old gentleman is not a very big landlord in Songjiang Mansion, with only more than 900 acres of land.

And it’s not the rotten land or the salt water land by the sea in Shanghai County, but the land in Songjiang. On average, one mu of land can earn eight dollars in rent.

The annual rice rent is more than 700 shi.

He is quite moral. There is no such thing as big fights coming in and small fights going out. He just collects rent according to normal rules.

In the past few years, at least in his impression, before Liu Yu started to engage in overseas trade, he had a very good life.

Due to the influx of large amounts of American silver, grain prices in Dashun have shown a continuous upward trend since the late Ming Dynasty.

Especially when Liu Yu went to Japan to deliver rice in exchange for a trade license, Songjiang Prefecture also suffered a major disaster that affected the East China Sea coast, so that when rice was at its most expensive, it cost 4 taels, 6 taels of silver per stone.

The rent for more than 700 shi of rice is 3,000 taels of silver.

However, with the advancement of Taishun navigation, the advancement of astronomy, the advancement of shipbuilding, and the tightening of a large amount of silver for investment, there are also the development of the Tohoku Ezo region, the investment in the Liaodong Iron Mine and the Gyeonggi Coal Mine, and the marine coal land. Due to capital transfers such as the establishment of glass factories and so on, the price of rice in Songjiang Prefecture has dropped a lot in recent years.

The "Toyo wheat" mentioned in the ballad is actually the grain of Liaodong or Ezo.

Nanyang rice is not entirely Nanyang rice. Part of it is actually Taiwanese rice.

Songjiang gradually occupied Guangzhou's position as a foreign trade center. At the same time, the Yangtze River Estuary area was also the starting point for trial rice shipping.

This has given Songjiang Prefecture unique conditions, and food prices have continued to fall. Coupled with the imperial court's tax-free policy on rice imports, when rice was at its cheapest in recent years, there was a wave of low prices of seven coins per stone.

The same rent of 700 shi can be sold for 3,000 taels of silver at the most expensive time.

In the past few years, when it was the cheapest, it could only be sold for 500 taels.

If 3000 becomes 500, anyone will complain.

This old gentleman is also a very traditional and orthodox country sage.

In addition to rent, the income is from loan sharking.

Very orthodox, very old-school.

Therefore, Songjiang Prefecture's industry and commerce developed greatly, and various joint-stock companies sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. This old gentleman believed that these were all evil ways and did not participate.

Rent collection and loan sharking are orthodox. Engaging in industry, commerce, and investing in stocks is heresy.

Therefore, the times are developing, but the old man cannot keep up, so he naturally feels the impact of food price fluctuations.

Moreover, even if loan sharking is provided to small farmers, it will also be affected by food prices. As food prices fell, tenant farmers were even less able to repay their loans.

I couldn't repay the loan, and I had a little bit of land, so I sold it all. There is nothing left except strength. In the end, he was a debt slave, and all the proceeds from his work returned to his master's family.

But the price of food is low, and even if all the income from working goes to the owner's family, it's still very little money.

Those engaged in the grain trade here are all big businessmen, and many of them are responsible for transporting rice to the imperial court. These businessmen are indeed hateful and greedy for profit. Every year during the grain harvest season, they will try their best to lower the price of grain.

Songjiang Prefecture's industry and commerce are indeed developing, but these gentry class also really feel that their interests have been harmed.

If there were no Dongyang wheat and Nanyang rice, they would of course support the industrial and commercial development of Songjiang.

A large number of people enter the city to do work, and the need for food increases. With the development of industry and commerce, there is more silver and more food is needed. Of course, the price of food will increase.

The problem is that the development of Dashun navigation is a bit fast, and in twenty years it has broken the rule of "don't buy something from a thousand miles away". Industry and commerce have developed, but so has the transportation industry. Instead of rising, food prices have fallen a bit, remaining within a range of eight qian to one tael.

Really uncomfortable. Decent living is also increasingly affected.