Xinshun 1730

Chapter 788 Conflict of old and new interests (five)
The Governor of Songjiang Prefecture immediately introduced what was going on with this special fake tenant farmer in Songjiang Prefecture who was actually at the level of a middle peasant.

Here, there is an unavoidable problem, that is, how much tax is paid by the grassroots.

Whether it is Ming Dynasty or Dashun, if you only look at the law, it is simply a paradise for farmers.Thirty one tax, this low tax is really the envy of the whole world.

However, if we only look at laws and regulations, it is too easy for this world to become a paradise.

If everything is done according to the rules, not to mention the normal land tax, even if the three rates in the late Ming Dynasty are added, there are not many.

The question of landlords collecting rent is not mentioned here.

Only tax and corvee issues other than rent collection are mentioned.

Dashun's land tax, even with the poll tax, is actually only 0.05 taels of silver.very low.

However, the first tax is light, the second tax is heavy, the third tax and the fourth tax are bottomless pits.This is the reality at the grassroots level.

The positive tax of 0.05 taels per mu of land is not much at all.

However, there were also some squires who recorded this at this time.

Said: The regular tax is 4 cents per mu, and every cent is added to the flat rate of [-] cents, so this is [-] cents of the money.The national class should be finished, if the mother only charges one cent and two cents, it is especially acceptable.

However, the government will send more per mu every time there is a big battle.If the tax per money is increased to half a tael, it can be especially supported.

However, adding ten, twenty, or thirty times a year, adding on top of each other, is unbearable!

Anyone who has encountered a business, the mansion, the post horse, the wine, the door bag, the long follower, the scribe, the yamen servant, and the husband's sedan chair are all out of it.And the sages of the township covenant borrowed from the officials and private sects, how can the people live?
That's pretty clear.

A tax of four cents of silver should be paid. According to the practice, the grassroots government will add two cents for every cent of silver, that is, one cent becomes three cents, and four cents of one mu of land equals one penny and two cents.

In this case, compared with the eleventh tax, you can live.Including the double tax increase of the unspoken rules, you can still live.

However, when you encounter corvee, additional assignments, and errands, it doesn't add up.

It's like digging a river. If you don't want to go, then pay for it.After paying the money, theoretically the government will hire someone to go for you; it’s like an official coming to walk a canal, and you have to pull the rope or prepare something else, and you have to arrest people.If you don't want to go, just pay.

Taking away the fundamental problem of landlords' rent, grassroots officials can reduce the tax from [-] to [-] to [-] to [-], or even to the point of [-].At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was even a situation where large tracts of land were abandoned and no one dared to plant them.

Just looking at the decrees and the court system, I feel that the feudal dynasty is really in line with the rule of benevolence and righteousness.

But if we look at the grassroots and the reality, we can only say that a dynasty that can live for 200 years is destined to be big.

Originally, there was a poll tax, and the apportioned money could be apportioned in the poll tax.It is also one penny plus leverage, which is added to one dollar, but part of this penny is land tax and part is poll tax.

Now, the poll tax is abolished.Even if leverage is added, there must be an initial amount of money, and all the money will be added to the land.

The middle and upper classes all have ways to avoid taxes.In other words, there is no need to specifically avoid taxes: only follow the national tax stipulated by the state, and there is not much money at all.

What they avoid is money other than national tax.

Whether it is Daming or Dashun, the national tax of one tael is collected, and the bottom layer has to bear ten taels, or even twenty taels.It seems that the land tax of 20 million yuan a year has been collected into the national treasury, and it is estimated that the bottom line will collect 800 million or [-] million yuan, which is not a problem.

So Dashun's finances are a bit stronger than those of Ming Dynasty, but they are also so garbage that they will soon be overtaken by Little Britain, which has no India and thirteen states that don't pay taxes.

This kind of situation has existed since Ming Dynasty, the so-called throwing effect and so on.

What is avoided is not the regular tax of the imperial court, but the increase at the grassroots level.

Under such circumstances, the situation of "lower land prices" that Liu Yu said at the beginning and that the merchant class also recognized also appeared.

The small peasant class is the focus of being exploited. The more land, the easier it is.

Even if you don't avoid taxes, as long as you can avoid the overweight at the grassroots level, there will be no pressure.

And now, with poll tax spread into land tax, the situation is even more severe.

Sitting in the Golden Luan Hall, the emperor felt that what he was doing was benevolent government, and the tax was one for thirty. Isn't this benevolent government?

In fact, the situation at the grassroots level is not that simple.

This is a common situation across the country.

In addition to the universality, there is also the particularity of Songjiang.

With the opening of trade with Japan, the promotion of Western trade, the expansion of smuggling business by the Sino-Swiss United Trading Company, and the emergence of various joint-stock companies, there was a wave of investment in Songjiang.

The person who talked to Liu Yu in Yinna of Songjiang Mansion before was a relatively orthodox squire who belonged to the old money class of the Celestial Dynasty.

No investment, no business, but old-fashioned lending, rent collection, imperial examinations, and family heirlooms.

They have little to do with the particularity of Songjiang tenant farmers.

The relevant ones are some squires who see the profits from the investment and invest their funds in joint-stock companies to earn annual interest, or some large and medium-sized landowners.

They are in desperate need of money.

However, the instability of trade and China's long-standing tradition of hoarding land made them unwilling to sell land in exchange for much-needed money.

Borrowing, the interest rate is too high.

Loans, no banks.

Selling land is a prodigal.

In this case, a very special form of tenancy appeared.

Deposit rent system.

For example, if this land is sold, it will normally sell for 10 taels of silver.

However, the landlord does not want to sell, and Dashun is a prodigal son when selling land. This is a common mentality.But urgently need cash to invest.Especially when the shares of the trading company to Japan are increased, money must be invested in the business that is obviously profitable.

Well, at this time some farmers stood up and said that I would rent your land.I will give you 6 taels of silver as a mortgage, and you will rent the land for me to plant, and I will give you some land rent symbolically every year.Whenever you want to take the land back, you can give me the 6 taels of silver, and I will return the land to you.

It's a bit like a pawn.

However, what is pawned is the right to use the land.

Why not just spend 10 taels of silver to buy it?
Firstly, why spend 6 taels when you can spend 10 taels of rent indefinitely and only give some symbolic land rent every year?
Second, the landlord himself does not want to sell the land.Selling land is easy and buying land is difficult, and land is also the best inheritance for future generations.In case the sale fails in the future, the land can be recovered.

Three, whoever owns the land will bear the tax.The big landlords have connections, so they can only pay the national tax and avoid those apportionments.Those who buy land only want the right to use the land, not the ownership of the land, because having ownership means paying taxes, assuming corvees, and so on.

Four, the landlord is in urgent need of money, but does not want to sell the land.How can it be possible to "hold the rent" at the original price?
In this way, some particularities of tenant farmers in Songjiang Prefecture were formed.

After questioning, it can be seen that the tenant farmer in front of him was originally a self-cultivating farmer.

The family has four acres of land.

The four acres of land were sold and exchanged for cash.

Then, when the big landlord is in urgent need of cash, he takes the cash from selling four acres of land as collateral, and rents ten acres of land, and only needs to pay one stone of rent per year.

Compared with the normal and universal tenancy, this rent is actually negligible.The most outrageous thing Liu Yu has seen is that when grain is harvested, a hundred catties is counted, 65 goes to the landlord and 35 goes to the tenant.The rent of ten acres of land is only one stone, which is really negligible.

What does this amount to?
It is equivalent to changing four acres to ten acres.

It also saves the national tax and miscellaneous taxes that the four mu of land had to bear before.

Is he a tenant?
Yes, because he himself does not have land as the means of production.

But is he poor?

Not rich, but compared to the common tenants in Dashun, certainly not poor.

This lease is beneficial to both parties.

First of all, due to the large amount of Nanyang rice and Dongyang wheat in Songjiang Prefecture, the income of traditional rent collectors has declined.

Second, investing requires cash.

Thirdly, taking the land as a mortgage to borrow money; and renting out the use rights of the land and collecting nearly half of the land sales price in cash, the two are completely different.

In the former, the land is mortgaged for debt, and the initiative is in the hands of the creditor.Moreover, the industrial and commercial investment in Songjiang Prefecture does not have the "attractive" rate of return like the Mississippi bubble or the South China Sea bubble. If you borrow usury to invest, what is the return on investment that is worth borrowing usury to invest?Especially when Dashun usury interest rate is so high, who would dare to borrow money as a last resort?

The latter, ownership of the land, remained with the landlord.When the owner's investment fails, or he wants to continue to collect rent, he pushes the deposit to the tenant, and the land is still his own.

Moreover, Songjiang Mansion protects this tenancy model and pays the official stamp contract tax.In most cases, both parties will not be idle and have nothing to do to breach the contract: what is the landlord doing after taking it back?What do tenants do when they retire?
Going around in a circle, who is actually damaged?

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that no one was damaged.

The national tax is not high. If you pay the normal national tax, it is not easy for small farmers to go bankrupt, whether it is in Ming Dynasty or Dashun.

The high tax is still the local apportionment, and the extra money for various reasons.Large landowners can avoid these additional taxes.

Since social investigation is to be done, whether it is a real tenant farmer or this kind of fake tenant farmer who is actually a middle peasant, it is necessary to ask questions.

Liu Yu thought in his heart that the governor of Songjiang Prefecture could be regarded as a capable official.

Whether it is the policy of adopting tenant farmers in the sales home that takes into account the sentiments of the grassroots, or the understanding of the two different tenancy models, it is enough to show that this person knows how to adapt, and he does have some understanding of the folks.

Considering the family situation of this tenant farmer, Liu Yu did not ask them about their views on "imported grain".

No need to ask, it's obvious.

These middle peasants who are called tenants but actually belong to contracted land must be dissatisfied with the reduction in food prices.For them, the main income is growing and selling food.

And because they don't need to pay taxes, and because they don't pay much rent to landlords under the rent-holding system, they are most likely to catch up with the class that has reached a leap in class due to the soaring grain price in a certain year.

Liu Yu reckoned that if he asked a question, there must be a lot of dissatisfaction.

Liu Yu didn't ask the obvious dissatisfied question, but asked about the situation of women's weaving here.According to the past habit, he took out some rock candy and distributed it to the children in the family, and sent someone to prepare some meals. With such an easy-going pretentiousness, the owner of the family gradually became more courageous.

When it comes to women's weaving, the owner of the house said: "The merchants in the city provide cotton, and the women in the village here take the cotton provided by the merchants in the city and spin yarn. How much cotton is received at the beginning of the month, how much is spun, and how much is bought by the merchants. .The price is also set by the merchant.”

"When rushing to the farming season, I do farm work during the day. At night, the women in the village gather together."

"For example, Zhang's family today and Li's family tomorrow. Each family lights oil lamps at night and rotates them every day. No one suffers."

"If you have good skills, you can also weave cloth and sell it. It's just that the poor woman is clumsy, so I have to do some spinning work. After a while, I will rent some land. If there is enough food, I will grow some cotton. "

"Right now the price of food is low, but the price of cotton is high. I think in a few years, I can grow cotton, weave it myself, and then sell it, and then I can get some more money. At that time, I can buy more land for the children."

"I'm afraid that in a few years, the price of this land will rise again, whether it is cotton or mulberry. It will cost a lot of money even if it is rented."

(End of this chapter)