Xinshun 1730

Chapter 914 Nanyang Development ([-])
Lianghuai, the cancer of the empire that has appeared since the Southern Song Dynasty took the Yellow River, is really difficult to solve under the current system.

It's not just as simple as being hit by disasters every year, but it's almost serfdom in the Middle Ages.

Historically, during the time of Kublai Khan in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, there was a question of the two Huaihe Rivers being played by ministers.Of course, from the perspective of great Confucianism, he pointed out that the relationship between the landlord and the tenant was not normal, and the tenant had to give gifts to the head household in order to get married.Marriage between tenants is not allowed without giving gifts. The main problem is that "you can't get married without paying the marriage tax to the host family, but people can't bear their desires, so they run around with men and women, which is very immoral."But from the perspective of future generations, if you get married, you need to give money to the master. Isn't this the power tax?
In the Beiyang period, the iron master here directly burned the county magistrate to death; in the Qing Dynasty, there was an inscription in the county government here: Once the tenants are charged by the owners, they will be pursued immediately, and the punishment will be serious.Even before liberation, land reform cadres looked at Huanghuai and northern Jiangsu and lamented, "From the perspective of social form, northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu are an era behind."

There is a particularity here that is completely different from other places.It is different from the problem of rampant twisters caused by the Yellow River bursting northward in the late Qing Dynasty.

Starting from the Southern Song Dynasty in the Lianghuai area, the problem that emerged was the rapid division of society.No canal wealth, no commerce, just agriculture.

Because of perennial disasters, there is no living environment for rich peasants and small landlords.It's not just that small landlords and wealthy owner farmers went bankrupt due to natural disasters, taxation system, water transportation, labor and other reasons.

But what should we do once we encounter a disaster year and everyone can't survive?
Eat big households, ask the big households for the rice they borrowed when Confucius was trapped in Chencai... However, the real powerful landlords have thugs in their families and official connections. Unless it is a big uprising, they can't eat or eat.

So they can only eat from rich peasant households and small landlords.Over time, there are no so-called normal farmers or landlords here.

The big ones cannot move, and the calamity years are getting bigger and bigger.

The poor are still poor, and in the year of disaster, there is nothing to eat.

The ones in the middle are completely wiped out.

destroyed by natural disasters.

Annexed by tyrants.

Being poor by the bottom.

The Lianghuai region is either powerful.

Or poor, indebted sharecroppers.

Moreover, the gentrification has basically been completed, because good gentry can't get along here at all.Either get worse; or class slip.

Owner farmers may only be around 20%, and there is no middle class that is the most stable in the empire. Just looking at the proportion of the Huanghuai area, it feels like Dashun is about to end.If the classical empire got less than 40% of the owner farmers and semi-owner farmers, then the cycle can basically be declared.

Because of frequent natural disasters and Mingshun's wonderful "benevolent government" [-]-[-] tax, these tenant farmers can only rely on the powerful landlords to live.

Big landlords also have to guard against eating big households, so they have large courtyards with high walls.

The tenants are basically physically attached to the landlord, otherwise they have no other way out except begging.

Because here you can neither enter the Guandong, nor cultivate Mongolia, nor catch up with the seedlings to expand the industry, nor can you go to Nanyang spontaneously.

This is the heartland of Huaxia, and there is no open space in the surrounding area except for the sea.

In order to survive the personal attachment, the social relations here have already returned to the Middle Ages.For example, the landlord in the Yantai area dared to say that if you want to rent land, let me sleep with your wife first. Let the tenants speak carefully to avoid their own taboos. If they are not careful, they will be tied up and beaten to death. Most of the local tenants will stab them with a knife and go to Nanyang to enter Taiwan.

But where can this go?
When the centralization of the feudal court did not collapse, a basic order could still be maintained here.Once the centralization of power collapses, two models are most likely to appear here: the reactionary sects of religious organizations;

Don't say that it is different from Jiangnan, but it is different from Henan, Guanzhong, Gyeonggi and other places at this time.At the very least, in several places in Dashun's basic market, the proportion of self-cultivating farmers still has a proportion that should have existed in the heyday of the feudal dynasty.

Here it is completely broken.

The frequent occurrence of natural disasters caused by the southern reaches of the Yellow River is an important cause of all this.Looking through Jiangsu Chronicles, you can find that during the feudal dynasty in the northern Jiangsu area, disasters occurred almost every year, disasters every three years, exemptions every five years, and relief every seven years.

The imperial court is also powerless to control.Even if it is just a simple natural disaster, with such frequent occurrence, it is conceivable that the necessary classes of owner farmers and small landlords will slip.

To put it better, the environment here makes the people here have the strongest desire to go to Nanyang, not one of them.

Give a way to survive, they don't care about narrow escapes.

To put it at worst, this place has returned to the general personal attachment of the Middle Ages, and it takes a lot of effort to use the human power here.

Violence is the simplest and most effective way.

But on the premise of not rebelling, using violent means to clean up this corrupt land requires some means.

Moreover, it takes time.favorable location.People and.

Even if the evil gentry and landlords here are to be dealt with, it will take the Dashun court to complete the Huai River management project and the waste water to the sea.

Before that, detailed preparations are required.

Although there are hundreds of thousands of people who died because of Liu Yu, and he didn't care about the 50% death rate of immigration to Nanyang, he was generally a kind person.

So either don't solve it, look at this place as usual every year, pretend not to see it;

When you should be kind, you must not be kind, and you must be ruthless.

He heard those traffickers talk about the situation here in Songjiang Mansion, and when he was upset, he was already motivated to kill.Now that he came to ask the Jiangsu Jiedu envoy to handle the affairs with a pleasant face, and the Jiangsu Jiedu envoy explained clearly the many difficult situations in the local area, his murderous intentions became even stronger.

So the face is more pleasant.

Seeing that all parties have said what they can say about this matter, and it has reached a stalemate, Liu Yu, who is determined to kill, smiled and said: "The Huanghuai area of ​​Xuzhou has been a difficult place since the Song Dynasty, and I know it."

"Just now, the Jiedushi talked about the problem of lending here, and I have made some money over the years, so I want to do some good deeds. I need the help of all adults to take care of this."

"My lords, do you think that in several counties, following Duke Jing's old example and adopting the Green Crop Law? Of course, neither the imperial court nor the local treasury will pay. I will solve the money problem myself."

"Not to mention too much, it should still be possible to take care of several counties. I will recruit people myself, and I will not take public accounts. If the debt is not repaid in the future, how about going to Nanyang to work to pay off the debt?"

"Since the problem of going to Nanyang is the debt, the abolition of the water transport will not remove the labor law in the future, it is nothing more than a debt problem. Instead of asking others to borrow usury, it is better to borrow a low-interest young crop loan with an annual interest rate of 15%. "

The Jiedu envoy of Jiangsu was stunned, startled by this thought, and didn't know what to say for a while.

The governor of Huanghuai frowned and said: "Xing Gong, everyone knows that you are rich, but this place is a bottomless pit. Even if you are as rich as you, you can't fill it up."

"Lending loans to tenants and small farmers can't get back the capital at all. If there is a flood, there will be nothing. Even if you want to pay back the money, you can't pay it back."

"Moreover, if you put out a 15% low-interest loan, if you don't need too much collateral, many poor households will probably have to borrow money from here immediately to pay off old debts."

"Going to Nanyang, can I earn this money back? I don't think so. The pit here is really not enough."

Liu Yu sighed and said, "Don't I know? It's just that if the court handles this matter, it will definitely not work. The court may have a better way, but the court does not use it. This young crop method is even more impossible to use. The old system of "Zhou Li" is not easy to deal with; but if it is for the relief of the people, it will treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, and there is really not so much money."

The better way he said, and the method that the court does not use, is nothing more than going back to the old road.

Either Juntian.

Or permanent tenant increase tax reform.

Only by raising taxes can we better maintain the stability of the small peasant economy.Thirty one national tax and arbitrary local apportionment policy will only lead to the accelerated bankruptcy of small farmers. It is not that the imperial court did not understand this. Many people understand it very well, but they dare not say it clearly.

Sometimes, the consequences of policies often go against common sense and intuition.

The main reason why the Qing Crop Law cannot be used by the imperial court is that small farmers have always been the worst lenders.Even in later generations, banks are more willing to deal with large enterprises than small farmers, and it is easy to issue non-performing loans.

If the imperial court implements the young crop law, what will happen if the debt cannot be collected?The county magistrate took the yamen servants to pick up the house and raise the cows?Even if you want to raise a house and raise a cow, you have to have a cow to lead.

Therefore, the court could not use this method at all.

It is precisely because of this that Jiangsu Jiedu envoy Shicai was stunned.

This is obviously a tiankeng, a tiankeng where all the wealth will be lost. Jiedushi never thinks that Liu Yu is stupid, and he can figure it out. Does this person who is rich in trade and commerce not know?
If it is said that it is out of good intentions, kindness, benevolence and righteousness, it really has to shock people.

Do people really believe in benevolence?

Or is it money that has no place to spend it?

The Jiangsu Jiedu envoy also persuaded the governor of Huanghuai, and he seemed to have to show a proper attitude of kindness.

"My lord, although this is a good deed, but...the poor can't be saved. Now the imperial court wants money and grain from nearly [-] states and counties. If we try it out in these [-] states and counties first, it will naturally benefit the people and save the people." It’s just that there are many disasters in northern Jiangsu, I’m afraid that all the money will be wasted, and nothing will be resolved in the end.”

"I'm here to tell you the truth. Although good deeds are good, you must do what you can. If the Duke thinks that going to Nanyang can really earn you back, then do it; if you can't earn back, then don't do it."

"As for the state government, if it is done, I will support it. Not only I support it, but local officials from all over the country will also support it. Such a good deed will help the victims of the disaster to cultivate capital next year. It is a good thing."

"An annual interest rate of 15% is also a loan of benevolence and justice that has never existed since ancient times."

""Zhou Ritual" says: If there are [-] or [-] people in the outer suburbs, the income in Wanquan period is [-]. The people of the capital of Dianshao County can earn [-] in the period of Wanquan period. It is an act of great benevolence and righteousness to get ten thousand dollars and five thousand dollars!"

"As for saying that if you can't pay your debts, you will go to Nanyang to work and pay your debts. This is a matter of course. It neither violates the "Da Shun Law" nor violates the conscience of heaven and earth. Repaying debts is a matter of course."

"Anyway... this is a matter for the Duke to decide on his own. As long as the Duke wants to do it, I have nothing to say, and I absolutely support it. You can even ask the counties to allocate warehouses for temporary use, and you can do it as a young crop warehouse without charging a penny."

Liu Yu hurriedly said: "I feel at ease with this sentence. But this year's matter must be resolved as soon as possible. Since the Jiedu envoy is worried about the forced debt liquidation this year, the people's rebellion will happen when the loan is not received next year. Then there is such a loan for young crops. , you don’t have to worry about next year’s affairs. This year’s affairs, please do something special.”

(End of this chapter)