Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 673

With the signing of the surrender document by the VOC, a war involving half of Java, Sumatra and the Malaya Peninsula finally came to an end.

Zhao Xin did not intend to return the occupied Banten Sultanate's land, because it was his stated goal to unify the entire West Java.You must know that the ancient Chinese had a brilliant explanation of this situation long ago, that is, "How can you allow others to snore and sleep on the side of the couch"!
In order to intimidate other sultanates, Zhao Xin divided the entire Banten region into four administrative regions, north, south, middle and west, according to the administrative divisions of another time and space, and put the Cirebon sultanate under its jurisdiction. The region is divided into two districts, all of which are under the rule of Beihai Town.

Then he sent a secret telegram to He Xiwen, ordering him to lead troops into the Solo Sowang Palace in Serang, disband the palace guards of Sultan Ali Yuddin I, force him to abdicate, and send Zheng Wenxian to exile him and all family members to West Borneo Dai Yan, handed over to Wu Yuansheng to guard.

So the Banten Sultanate, which once replaced the Sunda Kingdom and ruled across Sumatra and West Java for 240 years, ushered in the final blow.

Just destroying the country is not enough, religious and economic means must also keep up.For this reason, Zhao Xin asked Huang Zhongtong, who had just returned to Bacheng, to go north again to recruit monks in Guangdong and Fujian. He wanted to open Buddhist monasteries in Banten. The economy is relatively simple. The main economic lifeline of Banten is pepper. Just let the Chinese businessmen in Bacheng be responsible.

The northern navy showing its fangs made the princes and princes all over Southeast Asia frightened. They finally realized that Beihai Town is a more terrifying existence than the Portuguese and the Dutch.So the Kingdom of Aceh in Sumatra, the Kingdom of Johor in the Malay Peninsula, the Kingdom of Temenggong, and the Kingdom of Manguni Karan in Central Java all sent their prime ministers to Bacheng with heavy gifts, asking for the asylum of Beihai Town, and even become a vassal.

The arrival of a large number of envoys made the two hotels in Bacheng full of guests. Among the people coming and going on the street, envoys of various sultanates wrapped in turbans can be seen everywhere, and those beautiful women in "sarongs" and shawls The Javanese women caught many people's eyes even more.

The end of the war also led to the rapid recovery of Bacheng's sea trade. By mid-August 1793, more than a dozen merchant ships had arrived in Bacheng, bringing a large amount of silk, sugar, tea and porcelain; merchants were selling the goods Afterwards, they frantically purchased goods such as cool oil, essential oil, pepper, clove, nutmeg, ivory, coral and sandalwood in the market.

Since August 1793, 8, the Chinese "court" in Bacheng has been changed to "Public Affairs Office", which is under the Military Control Commission, and its original public management functions have been completely split; civil and criminal ruling powers belong to the Bacheng Police Department and the court, the taxation power was assigned to the Bacheng Tax Administration, and only civil affairs functions such as marriage and birth registration, road and bridge public works, and cemetery allocation were retained.In addition, all personnel are paid by the military control committee, and bonuses are issued based on quarterly work performance.At this point, the "Kapitan" system, which was founded by the Dutch and lasted for 1 years, came to an end.

In fact, the emergence of the Chinese Kapitan was a buffer zone established by the Western colonists between themselves and the Chinese community, through which they carried out economic plundering of the colonies.The main responsibility of Kapitan is to link directly with commercial activities and establish a financial foundation for the colony to survive through the tax package system.

Zhao Xin abolished the "Japitan" system, which also abolished the "tax package system". At the same time, he also broke the standard of appointing officials based on economic status in Southeast Asia.It was also from then on that prominent Chinese merchants and large-scale landowners lost their monopoly control over urban public affairs and were replaced by peasant associations, labor unions, and chambers of commerce.

Let me talk about the peasant association first.After all, in the eighteenth century, whether it was Southeast Asia or the inland of the Central Plains, agriculture was the main component of the economy.

The establishment of local farmers' associations and the implementation of the "Farmers' Association Law" are a major event that Zhao Xin, Chen Qingsong and others have been planning for many years.Considering that Java Island has many differences in land area, number of Chinese, and personnel structure, Bacheng did not completely copy the "Farmers' Association Law" of Beihai Town, but formulated it independently after two years of preliminary investigation. A set of administrative regulations that are completely different from those in the inland areas.Zhao Xin intends to adopt this system in all parts of Southeast Asia where Beihai Town belongs in the future.

To put it simply, the main goal of the Bacheng Farmers’ Association at this stage is to promote new crops and livestock, handle agricultural and breeding technology promotion, supply and marketing of agricultural and livestock products, and force farmers to save, and other agricultural-related matters.The peasant association adopts a three-level system in its organizational structure to correspond to the three-level administrative system of Beihai Township in Southeast Asia, including the governor's district, administrative office, and village. The town's government management tentacles penetrated into the plantations and villages.

In the election of farmers’ association representatives, firstly each plantation holds a member’s meeting of the agricultural group separately, elects a group leader and vice-chairman and representatives of members attending the farmers’ association, and recommends candidates for managers and supervisors; then holds a member’s representative meeting, Election of directors and supervisors; finally, the establishment of the board of directors and supervisors, with the consent of more than two-thirds of the council, elects the director-general from among member representatives.

According to official regulations, only those who are directly engaged in agricultural and animal husbandry production can become members of the farmers' association.All members are required to pay an entrance fee - 10 Beihai yuan, and 5 yuan per year thereafter.Those who can't afford this money can be paid in advance by the Military Control Commission, and deducted after the harvest is obtained.Of course Chinese farmers don’t want to pay, but the problem is that if they don’t pay, they won’t be able to join the farmer’s association, and if they don’t get into the farmer’s association, they won’t be able to get new crop seeds, and the farmer’s association won’t be responsible for buying and selling after harvest.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient funds in the early days of the farmers' association, Zhao Xin allocated 50 Beihai Yuan through the military control committee to set up a credit department in Bacheng that serves members of the farmers' association, that is, a financial department that specifically serves farmers.In addition to providing farmers with loans to purchase seeds, tools, and fertilizers, it also provides services for deposits and tax collection.

He intends to transfer the clan management, farmers' culture, education, benefits, and health care to the farmers' association after the farmers' association's profits expand in the future. Guidance on the planting direction of agricultural crops.

Zhao Xin is so busy every day that he can't wait to break it, and he has no time to go to the beach and be a straw hat kid.While carrying out drastic economic, political and economic reforms in Javanese society, he also kept in frequent contact with Kong Shaoan, who guarded Jiaodong, and kept an eye on the land reform movement in Jiaodong.

The work teams in the four counties of Jiaodong that went to the countryside last year have actually been very effective. The military control committees in various places have obtained a large amount of first-hand data, basically mastering the land conditions in each county and township, and classifying the wealth and poverty of farmers in each family. .However, it's not that simple after that.

After getting the data, Kong Shaoan initially thought of a land reform storm in China in the [-]th century, but he soon fell into a tangle; although the land in Jiaodong area is barren, due to the developed sea trade, prosperous culture and education, the vast majority Some landlords are not local tyrants and bullies. After contacting many of them, the work team felt helpless.

Secondly, because they have not been impacted by foreign civilizations, the mentality of the people is hardly slack.The people in Jiaodong these days are quite simple, and there is not much bitterness and hatred.Although the countryside is very poor, the Confucian "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness" is still the mainstream of people's thinking.Coupled with the fact that the Beihai Navy always fought fiercely, the Qing army would be defeated at the first touch, and the villages did not suffer from the flames of war.So for them, changing the regime in the world means changing the emperor, and they are still farming the land and receiving food.

Well, with advanced military equipment and technology, Beihai Town can defeat the Qing Dynasty without mobilizing a mighty army of one million, so it does not need to go through the land reform storm to obtain a large number of soldiers to win the military struggle.

Because of this essential difference, it is not feasible to promote the struggle against the rural landlords and gentry to subvert the old ruling class, so the landlord class cannot become a symbol of evil against the new regime.If Kong Shaoan really wanted to start a land reform campaign against landlords like in another time and space, it would probably cause unexpected and serious consequences.

He is numb now, the actual situation is different from what he thought, what should he do next?So at the beginning of July this year, that is, in the middle of May in the lunar calendar, Kong Shaoan returned to Beihai Town with the ship transporting scholars to participate in scientific research, and made a special trip to Fuldan City to find his old superior Chen Qingsong for advice.

Chen Qingsong has devoted most of his energy to agriculture in recent years, so he has a very deep understanding of traditional Chinese rural economy.You must know that whether it is a bankrupt low-level peasant or a gentry class, there are people in Beihai Town who can ask for advice.He had known for a long time the difficulties Kong Shaoan would face, and these would also be common problems faced by Beihai Town after entering the customs.So he took an afternoon to have a good talk with the other party.

". Xiao Kong, you have been in Jiaodong for almost a year. Can you tell me the characteristics of China's economic structure in the feudal era?"

"(⊙o⊙)..." Kong Shaoan thought for a while, and then said without thinking: "A self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy?"

"anything else?"

"Closed, family-based, and land controlled by landlords and bureaucrats."

"Well, what you said is all in the books."

"Mr. Chen, I didn't study history very much back then, and I studied in a technical secondary school."

Chen Qingsong nodded. He is now in charge of the feeding problems of millions of people in Beihai Town, so how could he remember these things.

"What you said just now is a generalized answer. Let me express my own opinion. The economic structure under the Manchu Qing Dynasty has three important characteristics. The combination of the trinity of landlords, merchants and usurers, and the combination of feudal regime and industry and commerce. Specifically in rural areas, it is land ownership, commercial capital and usurer capital.”

Kong Shaoan felt that he had returned to the previous classroom, holding a pen and writing vigorously in the small book, listening to Chen Qingsong's smooth talk with all his attention.

"Our feudal system is fundamentally different from the European feudal system. You see, the territories of nobles cannot be transferred, so they sit in rural manors, rely on feudal privileges, use taxation, and other forms to exploit cities through agricultural products; Merchants and usurers have mastered the monetary power, and economically exploited the countryside through commercial behavior and usury. This is called the independent development of land rights and currency rights. The bourgeois revolution in Europe is essentially the integration of urban currency rights and rural land rights. struggle.

As for us, since the Northern Wei Dynasty began to implement the land equalization system, land has been freely bought and sold.That, the Yongye Field in the Tang Dynasty can be bought and sold.Ever since, landlords, merchants, and usurers became a trinity, controlling both land rights and currency rights, completing the unification from production to circulation, so the landlord class is the main ruling class no matter in the city or in the countryside. . "

"Mr. Chen, I checked some civil affairs statistics. In the past few years, the price of food in the pass has risen sharply, as high as five times. It is not only due to the war between the Manchu Qing Dynasty and us, but is it also related to the increase in land prices?"

"En. You are right." Chen Qingsong continued: "If you can see this, it means that you have used your brain. Yes, the price of food has risen, and the price of land has risen. What does this mean? It means who owns more land , Whoever owns more food will be able to occupy more social wealth. This is the same as hoarding houses on our side. The competition for land purchases and land mergers are intensifying. In this way, the landlord economy will be more consolidated and grow."

When Kong Shaoan heard this, he suddenly thought of He Shen.It is said that He Zhongtang has billions of dollars of wealth, and this person has 80 mu of land under his name. Now, one mu of good land is at least ten taels of silver, and these alone cost eight to nine million taels.What if the annual land rent and output are added?It's chilling to think about.

"Xiao Kong, remember what I said next. The fact that land can be bought and sold has endowed the group of landlords with a unique growth function."

"Growth function?" Kong Shao said with confidence that the people who have been leaders are different, and they use the same words and sentences.

"Yes, although there will always be periodic land crises and social turmoil in history, which deal a heavy blow to the landlord class, as long as the world is stable, they can clone themselves again according to the same model.

You should know that you have been in Jiaodong for so long. Nowadays, land transactions can be split into field bone and field skin, that is, the right to use, management, and permanent tenancy are subdivided, and then through the "trinity" economic model, the landlord economy It will only get stronger and stronger.I just said that Europeans use currency rights as a weapon to destroy land rights and feudal privileges, but in our land, it has instead become a weapon to consolidate land rights and feudal privileges.

When I was young, books often said that old China was "three big mountains". At first, I didn't understand why there were three mountains instead of four, and I always felt that warlords should also be counted as one.The ancients said that what is achieved on paper will eventually become superficial, and you will never know that you have to do it yourself.It's been a few years since I figured out what's going on. "

"How to say?"

"According to what I said before, in the end of the Qing Dynasty, the landlord economy and the landlord class always maintained a strong dominant position. After the invasion of Western imperialism, the landlord class, which occupied the largest part of the country's wealth, naturally became the object of their cooperation; and When the imperial power was in jeopardy, in order to preserve their own wealth, the landlord class would definitely join forces with the colonists. So some merchants, landlords and bureaucrats later became the predecessors of the national bourgeoisie, and this class was closely related to the land rent exploitation in the countryside. , has brought weakness from the womb. This is completely inseparable from the trinity of rural economic development."

(End of this chapter)