Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1057 Who Sues This Officer ([-])

As the saying goes, the name of a person is the shadow of a tree.

Liu Yu came to Huainan not to inspect wasteland, but to investigate the illegal salt case. As soon as the news got out, the dealers who had disputes with the wasteland company immediately panicked.

Because... Funing is also in the south of the Yellow River, not far from here.

They knew that Liu Yu really dared to kill people, and would "trap charges" to kill people.

Although those kitchen households and kitchen operators who cook salt are still fighting outside, these merchants are ready to surrender.

As long as they surrender, the rest will be easy.

In other words, the remaining matters, at least in theory, can be counted as "handling cases according to law".

In other words, as long as these merchants choose to surrender, Liu Yu can theoretically dispatch troops.

The entanglement here starts from the second year of Song Jianyan's removal of the Yellow River embankment, to Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Ming Dynasty and the establishment of a strict kitchen household system, and then to the development of the commodity economy. up.

When Fan Zhongyan built Fangong Dike, he would not be idle and do it at a place more than a hundred miles away from the sea.

The Yellow River moved southward, and the coastline continued to move eastward. This is the overall geographical background.

Then there are two backgrounds that need to be known.

First: Huainan does not use seawater to cook salt, but salt from muddy land.It relies on the rising tide of the sea, which moistens the land with salt, and then enriches the salt in the land with grass ash, dissolves it in water and boils it.

Second: These grasslands are not arable land, and all stove households only have the right to use, not ownership.

Under these two backgrounds, some things are almost inevitable.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the control was not bad, and the stove households, as the "tenants" of the country, cooked salt.

Each kitchen household has its own pasture—they only have the right to use it, but not ownership, which is different from cultivated land. The ownership of these salt cooking lands belongs to the imperial court.

The coastline is constantly moving eastward, and the silt that can boil salt is also constantly moving eastward. The tide soaking the mudflat was able to rush to the Fangong Dike when the Ming Dynasty was founded. Over 100 miles?
Therefore, under the kitchen household system in the Ming Dynasty, there was no talk about small producers being low-productivity, but only the most basic things.

The continuous eastward migration of the coast requires a strong government to inspect the eastward migration of the coast every once in a while, and then move the kitchen households eastward as well, re-dividing the fuel grassland for cooking salt.

For example, Mr. A, the stove owner, has discovered in recent years that the silt in his yard can no longer cook salt.And the coast continued to move eastward, and weeds and reeds grew on the east side.

It should be noted that if at this time, the stove owner A goes to the east to boil salt without the permission of the imperial court, this is called "private frying", which is private salt and a crime.

Then, this requires a very strong central government and a very strong grassroots bureaucracy. Through statistics every few years, the accounting department of the imperial court will redefine the migration of each salt household.

So... so, this set of things is bound to collapse.

If Daming had such administrative capabilities, let alone a single Saarhu, he would be able to fight twenty rounds of Saarhu.

Because there is no such administrative ability, and salt is necessary for the operation of the country.

In this case, the merchant class will inevitably appear, and the merchants will organize the production of salt.

In other words, the capital of merchants eliminated the small production system of small salt households. Although there was no innovation in productivity, the adjusted production relations could maintain the output of salt.

The profit-seeking nature of businessmen overcame the hysteresis of court statistics and distribution.

As a result, a special group of "actually illegal, but in fact everyone acquiesced that it is legal" has emerged.

For example, as the coast moved eastward, some grasslands outside the imperial court’s salt farms were actually more suitable for boiling salt than the original salt farms left behind by the coastline.

Then, the merchants funded and contracted this piece of grassland, and then they boiled salt for production.

Every once in a while, when the imperial court inspects the saltworks, it needs to be "upgraded"—that is, to upgrade the original non-salt farm grass farm without owner to a grass farm that has the value of boiling salt and taxation value—— At that time, the salt merchants will pay taxes very actively.

Because, if they don't pay taxes, then they are doing private salt.

And if they pay taxes... If they want to make illegal salt, they must not use all illegal salt, that is nothing to do.There must be an official salt production license. As for how much private frying is done in private, this is called fishing in troubled waters, and it is the most difficult to check.

This kind of thing, in fact, the local officials and the above have acquiesced.

Because the small salt households are too easy to go bankrupt, and the production capacity is really too low. Every year, some people flee, and every year they have to find people to make up for it.

On the one hand, it is a natural disaster.

On the other hand, it was the introduction of salt that caused the salt merchants to squeeze these small households.

The last is the inaction of the imperial court. In theory, the imperial court is obliged to provide these salt households with production materials and loans.However, after Wanli’s 45-year salt introduction reform, in fact, even the iron pans for boiling salt are made by businessmen...

There are some things, just like this, once the mouth is opened, the follow-up is almost a collapsed fester.

This mode can basically be understood as a replica of the introduction of salt:
The original mode of transportation was the imperial court—small salt merchants.The original production mode was the imperial court—small salt households.

Along with the introduction of salt, came the imperial court, a large contractor with monopoly privileges.The production model in which merchants intervene is the imperial court—salt industry transportation and sales contractor—manufacturer—hired workers under the producer’s jurisdiction or former small producers of salt households attached to them.

It can be understood as the serious degradation of the imperial court's administrative ability, and it can also be understood as the gradual disintegration of the imperial court's grassroots control power.

Of course, it can also be understood as the development of industry and commerce.

For example, the women who are now fighting against the land reclamation company, the real organizers behind the kitchen household, and the owner who is now afraid of Liu Yu's murder and is ready to surrender are very typical.

luxury merchants.rich.

The imperial court was in turmoil, and the salt households could not be recruited, so he took the initiative to rent out the premises, pay taxes, and produce salt.

If, according to the formal laws of Daming and Dashun, this is illegal and not allowed.

However, because everyone knew that the original stove household model had collapsed, this was acquiesced from top to bottom.

Local officials are out of control.

Merchants are not allowed to enter the site, and the salt collapses directly, which may degenerate into the case of no salt in the 45th year of Wanli.

Everyone knows that when merchants are allowed to enter the market, the next step must be to annex grasslands, lend money to kitchen households, and create de facto personal dependencies.

In fact, long before Liu Yu initiated the salt administration, there had been countless quarrels within the imperial court over the problem of salt production.

It is not news that merchants are strictly prohibited from entering the field, and merchants are allowed to enter the field. It is noisy every day and every day.

Liu Yu is a technology crushing faction who vigorously flies bricks, because he knows that as long as the productivity is still the same as soaking in marinade and boiling salt, the quarrel is meaningless and meaningless.

The large-scale sun-salting method is a blow to dimensionality reduction.

Before this dimensionality reduction strike, officials were discussing the matter based on Huainan's existing productivity level. Whether it was a group of businessmen who entered the field or a group of businessmen who were not allowed to enter the field, they all had their own reasons.

The most similar thing in later generations is the 1861 serf reform in Russia.

The populists and the traditionalists opposed the reform because [the land ownership of the village community was destroyed, and individual selfish factors took the lead. Under the private ownership and land sales, the landlords began to annex the land, and the crude egoism in the form of rich peasants flourished] .

【Farmers gained the personal freedom of buying and selling land and became 'free people', but their land use rights were lost, and they became tenants and poor hired workers...】

The vitality of this reactionary trend of thought is so tenacious that Solzhenitsyn, the conscience of Russia, still insisted on this set, and wrote a letter to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, hoping to abandon industrial development, restore the benevolence and beauty of villages and pastoral villages, and find the real Russia. The village community is equipped with the holy king, and the tradition is maintained.

The similar trend of thought here is similar, and its vitality is extremely tenacious.

As for the specific issue of salt administration, it is very similar from an economic point of view, just because it is a sideline business rather than farming, and it lacks the fantasy of the holy king of the mine field.

From an economic point of view, it is somewhat similar to the situation of the emancipation of Russian serfs. Caodang and salt households only have the right to use, but not ownership, so there is no possibility of being annexed, and the annexation is illegal in theory.

Yanhu was actually a state serf of Ming Dynasty.In the early stage, the imperial court demarcated grasslands and issued production tools. Salt households were not allowed to move. After receiving the production tools, they had to fulfill the obligation to sell salt at the specified site and were not allowed to go out for private sale.

After Dashun loosened his personal control, he was in the same state: Yanhu was free, but the fucking grass was gone.

This typical merchant is the third child after entering the market.

When Yanhu couldn't support it, he lent money, and then Yanhu couldn't pay back the money, so he collected the grass from Yanhu: I pay the tax, you depend on me, and you pay the rent for the salt you produce.

The salt households didn't want to continue in this business, so they fled and left their nationality, went to those unowned wastelands to mow grass, and sold them to market merchants to cook salt.

Apparently, according to the imperial court’s plan, each salt household is allocated hundreds of acres of grassland, and the amount of salt boiled each year is limited and controllable. So it is unplanned to mow grass from unowned wasteland and sell it to merchants. private salt.Businessmen are happy to buy grass and cook private salt.

In theory, just in theory, these grasslands and salt households only have the right to use, but not ownership, so they cannot be sold, and they are not eligible to sell.

However, this is the same problem as in later generations when rural grassroots land rights were confirmed.The land was not allowed to be sold before, but there are many private sales. After the agricultural subsidies are given, there are many people who go around the grassroots governments in various places every year to discuss the explanation.

It is not that there were no local officials, salt officials, especially those who opposed the admission of merchants, who wanted to resolve this matter.

But how to solve it?

All contracts are rejected, and the violent machine forces the dealers to return the waste of the merger?
Perhaps Liu Yu dared to play like this because he was already under one man and above ten thousand, and the emperor supported him.The little magistrate dared to play like this, and dared to directly deny the contract. Isn't this a death sentence?
Besides, the imperial court can't play with the small salt households. If the salt industry doesn't want to collapse, it can only acquiesce in the entry of merchants.

After entering the market, this typical market merchant obtained a large amount of "illegal" but recognized by the court through methods such as lending and bribery.

However, the relationship between salt households and merchants is not purely an employment relationship, nor even a complete rental relationship.

This is a bit like a special form of the British enclosure movement: the landlord rents the land to the capitalist who asks for a higher price, what should the tenant do?

In the UK, the capitalists set high rents, and the landlords took the initiative to sell the land.

Here is a merchant running private salt, and the wasteland reclamation company can't afford the price, how much money do people make from selling private salt in a year?How much do you have to ask before you are willing to sell the land?What's more, the unclaimed land occupied by the land reclamation company is destroying the foundation of their private salt production. This price cannot be afforded no matter what.

Liu Yu is magic to magic, don't you sell it?Okay, let's not talk about the contract issue, let's talk about the private salt issue.Since you know my name, you should also know that I am the best at collecting crimes. How much crime do you think I can give you for your illegal salt business?Do you know the magistrate?Do you think the magistrate is facing you or me?
In theory, it doesn't have to be so troublesome at all.

Legally, the ownership of the grass land is owned by the imperial court, and Yanhu has always only had the right to use it, and it is even illegal to sell the grass land privately.

This is why some officials objected to the entry of merchants, and would propose the legal principle of allowing merchants to return the Shido Caodang.

Theoretically, this can be regarded as nationalization of land. If it is really possible to do things according to the law, then it is simple: do things according to the law, auction the land use right, and the wasteland reclamation company gets it.The pots and pans of the salt households, the houses in the salt pit, and the amount of fried salt will be compensated according to the annual tax amount, so get out.

However, this is only in theory.

Liu Yu, the Duke of the state, did not dare to play like this, nor did he dare to deny these contracts at all.

Therefore, the dealer was afraid, as long as the contract was handed over, Liu Yu could theoretically use violence directly.

The contract is to block the mouth of the world.In other words, it was to save face for the emperor and to find a step.Otherwise, from local officials to Jiedu envoys to Liu Yu and then to the emperor, they would all be sprayed to death.

The economic base determines the superstructure, and the morality, standards of right and wrong, and the utopian control of people's permanent property in the era of small farmers and small production cannot be compatible with the industrial age. Even the first few steps are the sins of morality at this time. the evil deeds of man.

The fundamental contradiction in this matter is not whether to enclose land or not, but the struggle between the Huaibei large saltworks production model and Huainan small production model.

If Liu Yu doesn't enclose the land, these salt households will also lose their jobs, as long as the Huaibei Saltworks model is not demolished.

Enclosure is just an accessory of this kind of struggle, the difference is that Liu Yu wants to race for time, and can't wait for these salt households to go bankrupt.

Because Liu Yu can clearly say that adding taxes on Huaibei salt can also kill Huainan salt, so the fate of these small salt households was doomed the moment the Haizhou salt field was built.

These small salt households and petty bourgeois struggle in the wrong direction.

They shouldn't be fighting with the enclosure here, but should directly revolt with arms, rush to Haizhou, destroy the steam engine, and destroy the big salt field.

This is also one of the reasons why Liu Yu resolutely opposes the construction of the large saltworks in Huainan, in addition to natural conditions, rain and heat conditions, seawater concentration conditions, and conditions in coal-producing areas.

He is afraid that these small producers have really found the right direction of struggle that best suits their interests, dismantling machines and smashing chimneys.

(End of this chapter)