prosperous age

"How is the matter of Zhuangtian handled?"

After reminding Wei Guangde not to intervene in Li Fang's case, Emperor Longqing casually asked about his relative Zhuangtian.

This is actually a trivial matter, so he wanted to cut through the mess quickly and issue an order as soon as possible to settle the matter.

"Your Majesty, I'm already making preparations. I will discuss this matter with the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Tuntian Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate this afternoon. If everything goes well, there will be a report in the next two days."

Wei Guangde bowed and said.

"Well, that's very good, I can rest assured that you can do things."

Emperor Longqing said happily, "This matter should be resolved as soon as possible. I have heard that after the household department made the announcement, officials below have discussed in private, saying that the number of [-] hectares is too much and should be halved.

You know, for some people, dozens of hectares of land is a lot of income, but Xunqi's family is different from them, there are a lot of people to support, and I have no way to do it.

They are all heroes who went through life and death for the Ming Empire, so we can't let their descendants still suffer from hunger. "

"Your Majesty's generosity is the blessing of the ministers."

Hearing what Emperor Longqing said, Wei Guangde hurriedly flattered him again.

"This matter, you hurry up and get it done, and leave if you have nothing to do."

Emperor Longqing had nothing to do, but seeing the note from the factory guard and knowing that Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and Wei Guangde planned to intervene in Li Fang's case, he was not happy.

Although Chen Yiqin's pleading was rejected before, he didn't want to create a rift with those old people, so he decided to summon Wei Guangde.

Based on his understanding of Wei Guangde and what he meant, he would help to appease other people in this matter.

Don't look at the fact that other officials are not the biggest among these people, but the right to speak is not weaker than others.

"Your Majesty, I have received a report from the Ministry of Household Affairs today, please read it."

While speaking, Wei Guangde took out a memorial from his sleeve, held it in both hands and handed it over.

"What's the matter, you can briefly talk about it. When the time comes, the memorial should be sent directly to the Supervisor of Rituals."

Emperor Longqing didn't intend to take it over, and the light here was not good, so he couldn't see it in his hand, so he asked directly.

"Your Majesty, it is Jiangxi governor Liu Guangji who requested to re-use a whip method to levy taxes and servitude in Jiangxi. Before that, the memorial was sent to the cabinet. The cabinet discussion is a big matter, so let the Ministry of Households discuss it first to see what it means. After all, this tax and servitude is originally An errand for the household department."

Wei Guangde said unhurriedly.

"A whipping, didn't it just be ordered to stop last year? What's going on with Liu Guangji, it's brought up again."

Emperor Longqing was displeased, and brought up the matter that had just been stopped a year later. This is not to say that there is a problem with the imperial court's policy formulation.

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing went on to say: "Since the court has already made a decision to stop this matter, it should be dismissed directly."

Hearing what the emperor said, Wei Guangde certainly wouldn't stop there.

After doing so many things, how could it be in vain just because the emperor was concerned about face.

With this in mind, Wei Guangde immediately said loudly: "Your Majesty, the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs have carefully considered this matter."

"Oh, tell me."

Although a little impatient, Emperor Longqing was still able to listen to opinions, so he planned to listen to what Wei Guangde had to say this time.

"At the beginning, the court and the Central Committee agreed to suspend the one-whip law, mainly because Shanxi had just experienced a war, and Shandong had a civil uprising because of this law. The courtiers were worried that continuing to implement the one-whip law would cause more instability in the local area, so they agreed temporarily. stop.

Later, according to the cabinet's understanding, the civil uprising in Shandong was caused by a random showdown by local officials.

When Jiangnan implemented this method, there was no disturbance at all, which shows that it was actually caused by the mishandling of local officials.

Therefore, this time, the Ministry of Household Affairs decided to use Jiangxi as a pilot, and first select several prefectures to implement a whip method, and after a year, summarize the successes and failures, and then implement it in the whole province.

It is a good policy for the perfected whip method to be reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs for deliberation, implemented in the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, and then gradually promoted in the north.

The cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs agreed that it is not a fluke that high-ranking officials in the south of the Yangtze River implemented a whipping method smoothly because of last year's events, but that the local people also hope to collect taxes and labor in this way. "

Wei Guangde spoke eloquently, and next, Wei Guangde explained to Emperor Longqing the problems that existed in the implementation of the "Whip Law" in the north and south.

One whip method is actually to simplify various tax items and collect them together. At the same time, one of the biggest differences from the previous tax and service system is the abolition of forced labor, and the replacement of hard labor collected by dime and households into silver, which is called tax collection. Household Dingyin is collected in the land tax.

Taxes are all levied in silver, and currency is used to replace physical objects and labor, and servants are hired by the government.

At the same time, the people's collection of the people's solution was changed to the government's collection of the official solution, and the government undertook everything from collection to escort.

As a result, people don't have to walk hundreds of miles to transport the tax to the point after paying the tax in the local area, which saves a lot of trouble.

Of course, this is the reason why this system is easier to implement in the south than in the north.

The climate in the south is warm, and there is far more farm work in the fields than in the north. It can be said that there is not much free time in the fields of farmers throughout the year.

Farmers naturally don't want to waste time doing these things. Now that it's better, they can save time and continue to work on the field. The government has paid for the next work, so it is right to spend more money.

In the north, there are more slack time for farming. If the government implements this method, if the distribution is uneven, the farmers will naturally be unwilling, which will easily lead to civil uprisings.

To put it bluntly, this is a problem caused by regional differences.

There are more fields in the south, but less in the north. In principle, the Ming tax system is unified. Of course, some places are heavier than the surrounding areas because of Zhu Yuanzhang.

But regardless of special circumstances, the tax rate is actually the same, which leads to the fact that farmers in the south can barely live after bearing the same tax and labor, while farmers in the north are living in embarrassment.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, because the showdown agricultural tax was set to be the same as that of the north and the south, the peasants in the north rose up and rebelled because they could not survive, while the south was relatively stable. This is the reason.

This time, Wei Guangde focused on telling Emperor Longqing the difference in land output between the north and the south, so that he could have a bottom line.

Although the emperors of the Ming Dynasty still retain the ceremony of spring plowing and sacrifices, they have no concept of the reality of the land. They only think that the land is the same.

However, it should be admitted that the tax amount determined by Zhu Yuanzhang when he divided the prefectures and counties in the world was actually scientific.

Although it is a bit out of date with the progress of the times now, it does not mean that his thinking is correct, it is just that the Ming court did not keep pace with the times due to various reasons and made corresponding modifications.

Think about why the 23rd year of Chongzhen's yellow book appeared, and you will know the reason.

From the founding of the country to the fall of the country, the Ming Dynasty was almost unchanged. From the young to the decline, Zhu Yuanzhang must be admired. It is not easy to design a system that can last for nearly 300 years.

"According to what you said, even if it is implemented in the south of the Yangtze River and then implemented in the north, there will still be problems due to various reasons."

Emperor Longqing was not stupid, and what Wei Guangde said was simple and easy to understand, so he naturally understood it all at once.

"The main purpose of Jiangnan's promotion is to find a suitable method of dividing the land into acres, and the north can learn from it, so as to improve a set of taxation methods suitable for the north and the south, not to directly apply the method of the south of the Yangtze River to the north.

The Ministry of Household Affairs considers that the pilot project in Jiangxi should be carried out for at least two years, and it will continue to be promoted in the south after it is completed. "

Wei Guangde's words have made it quite clear that officials in Jiangnan who have performed outstandingly in implementing this policy should be transferred to the north to continue this work, and they will naturally be promoted accordingly.

Having experienced the perfecting of a whip method in the South, they naturally knew how to find a solution.

It is of course much more reasonable to mobilize experienced officials to participate in the promotion of the tax law in the north than the tax law created by local officials.

"Okay, since the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs think it is feasible, then you can continue to do this. I have no objection to you trying this method."

Emperor Longqing finally nodded, but then added: "Jiangxi matters can be decreed, but not explicit."

Well, Emperor Longqing still felt that he overthrew the newly established policy so quickly, and as an emperor, he felt a little embarrassed.

Therefore, the decree can be issued, but it will not be published in the residence newspaper and made known to everyone.

"Earlier, you said that the tax is divided into the mu. As far as I know, the tax is a tax that has been collected in all dynasties. From what you said, it seems that this tax is not properly levied."

Emperor Longqing suddenly remembered Wei Guangde's previous words, "a piece of land into an acre", the first time I heard this word, it was a little strange.

But the meaning of this word is easy to understand and not complicated.

After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, he promulgated the decree of "making the head of Guizhou to own the land", requiring landlords and landed farmers to report the amount of land they own, pay taxes according to the custom, and also collect "household tax" and "mouth tax".

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it inherited the Qin system, "not only collecting land rent, but also exporting Fu".

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Land Equalization Order was promulgated, and Tian Dingnan was obliged to pay taxes and serve corvee.

Tang Wude promulgated the "Zuyong Adjustment Law" in the seventh year, stipulating that every Ding should be paid to the state to rent two stones of millet every year; if the adjustment is made in the native land, two feet of silk or silk and three taels of cotton should be paid every year; where no cotton is produced, that is, two feet and five feet of Nabu , Three catties of hemp.

In addition, every Ding has to serve [-] days of corvee every year, plus two days in the leap month; if there is no corvee, it will be replaced by silk or cloth, which is equivalent to three feet of silk or three feet, seven inches and five cents of cloth every day, which is called Yong
At this time, the imperial court's taxes and servitude were actually just the opposite of the later generations' "spreading the land tax into the mu".

However, since the Anshi Rebellion, the common people's fields were "mostly annexed by wealthy families and officials", and the method of renting and adjusting based on Ding households was no longer applicable.

In the first year of Tang Dezong's Jianzhong period, Prime Minister Yang Yan formulated the Two-Tax Law. The implementation of the Two-Tax Law was a reflection of land mergers that changed the land ownership status in the tax system.

The two-tax law changed from per capita taxation to property taxation, reflecting the development law of taxation.

At the same time, it combines various taxes and collects them in summer and autumn, which simplifies the tax system, so Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing all adopted it.

Therefore, even though the Ming Dynasty now implements the two-tax law, it is mainly for property and Dingkou taxation, and because of the importance of Ding tax in history, Emperor Longqing still finds it very strange that Wei Guangde proposed to divide Ding into mu.

Wei Guangde thought about it, and decided to simply tell Emperor Longqing about it today.

He has been an official for so many years, especially after studying Gui E's "one-whip method" thought, he has realized that the Qing Dynasty's "one-whip method" is actually a follow-up to the "one-whip method", and it is a complementary relationship.

One whip method simplifies the complicated taxation, and distributes the regular tax and miscellaneous taxes to the fields, and the servants do the same.

But there are advantages and disadvantages. Although a whip law simplifies the tax law, it does not reduce the burden on the people.

The fundamental purpose of proposing and implementing the One Whip Law was to solve the financial shortage of the feudal dynasty and consolidate its rule, not to really reduce the burden on the people. The essence of the reform was to simplify the types of taxes, not to reduce taxes.

The facts also illustrate this point. During the implementation process, miscellaneous labor under various names was still collected, and the burden on farmers was not truly reduced. On the contrary, because of the merger, the miscellaneous taxes that local officials cleverly set up were covered up.

And Wei Guangde knew that the reform of Zhang Juzheng's tax law made the Ming Dynasty receive a lot of money. From this, Wei Guangde came up with another guess, not something in his memory, but a guess based on the extra money collected by the court, that is, Zhang Juzheng was executing a whip At the same time as the law, the land of the whole country was remeasured.

What really increased the income of the Ming Dynasty was not a whipping method, but the tax revenue brought by the re-measurement of land.

Although a whipping method converts the labor into silver, this part of the silver belongs to the local government and is used to recruit people to pay for the hard labor, so the court will not increase income.

"Your Majesty, what is the difference between people in this world?"

Wei Guangde asked a question.

Of course he didn't dare to try Emperor Longqing, so he immediately said to himself: "Actually, to put it simply, people in the world are those who have money and those who have no money, or those who have land and those who don't.

Those who have land can naturally obtain money from the output of the field, and paying taxes is naturally a no-brainer.

But those who don’t have land can only live with those who have land, and get some remuneration by labor.

Both of them have to serve small labor or small taxes, but their output comes from the fields, so it can be seen that the source of wealth actually lies in the fields, not the small mouths, and the taxes also come from the fields.

Since they are all from the fields, there are actually some problems in the imperial court's system of taxation and labor.

According to the existing tax and labor system, it will only make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and it is easy to breed various disasters.

Since the output is all in the field, why not divide it into the field, cancel the small tax, and divide it all into the field.

Those who have land pay taxes, and those who have no land do not need to pay taxes. The collection of taxes and servitude is closely related to the source of wealth, that is, on the farmland.

Most of the landless people are already poor, and without the taxes they have to pay, their lives will improve anyway, so that they will not be left without food and clothing in the slightest disaster."

Wei Guangde Balabala briefly explained to Emperor Longqing the benefits of sharing a small household with an acre, and Emperor Longqing's eyes glowed when he heard it.

He suddenly realized that it seemed that it was better to have a penny than a whip.

It is not about making money for the court or simplifying taxation, but about making the society more stable, so that the people will not rebel at every turn.

In the late period of the Jiajing Dynasty, there were constant chaos in various places. Emperor Longqing had noticed it a long time ago.

And many of these common people are the landless in Wei Guangde's mouth.