Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 156 Civil

On the first day of the sixth lunar month in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the sound of reading came from the banks of Tamsui River.Lin Hai and Zhu Niang were inspecting the newly established volunteer school.

This place is located thirty miles upstream of Guandu City and is the intersection of Dahan River, the main stream of Tamsui River, and Xindian River, a tributary.

This place is called Monga by the Leilang people, which means canoe in their language.This place is named because it was originally a place where indigenous villagers traded local products, and many canoes often gathered here.

As early as a month ago, Lin Hai had followed the practice of later generations and renamed Monga to Wanhua and made it the first immigration settlement where non-military personnel gathered.

The reason why we chose this place was mainly due to the consideration of preventing malaria. The most severe places with malaria are usually at the intersection of salt and fresh water, that is, the seaside. However, this place is further inland than Guandu City, so the safety factor is relatively high.

Furthermore, the degree of malaria is often directly proportional to the sparse population. There were originally several Leilang villages here, and it was also the location of the indigenous market. Among the territories currently owned by Iron King Wulang, this place was considered to be the most developed.

In addition to malaria prevention, another reason for choosing this place was agricultural factors.

The Taipei Basin where Wanhua is located covers an area of ​​more than 240 square kilometers, and the developable arable land area is expected to reach 30 acres. If all is reclaimed into cultivated land, there will be no problem in feeding a population of 10.

Now, more than 900 households from Wanhua Village [-] to Wanhua Village [-] have settled in, and Wanhua Free School has been open for more than half a month.

Depending on the circumstances of the family members, each of these immigrants was allocated at least one hundred acres of land, which was twice as much as the average of fifty acres per household for military households in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the taxes they had to pay were higher than those of military households. They paid a fixed annual quota of four bushels of silver per mu of land, which was about three times that of military households in the Ming Dynasty, but lower than the average eight bushels of silver per mu of official land in Susong and other places. The land tax is much lower.

Considering that the agricultural foundation of the Taipei Basin is poor, the current yield per mu is only about half of that of Susong Guantian. Therefore, this burden is about the same as that of Susong Guantian landowners, but compared with what landlords charge tenants. Land rent is still slightly lower.

Land tax must be heavy. This is Lin Hai's major policy for Dongfan.

If you don't do this, according to the Ming Dynasty's land prices, land rents and rice prices, if you buy a piece of land and rent it to tenant farmers for farming, you can get your money back in about five years, and then you will make a pure profit.

This return on investment is comparable to buying shares of the Dutch United East India Company in its heyday, which was the most valuable listed company in human history.

If the land tax in Dongfan is as low as that in the Ming Dynasty, industry and commerce will obviously not be able to develop, and all funds will flow to buying land.

And it is impossible for Lin Hai to reverse history and restrict the free sale of land. Whether it is the land restriction laws of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the land occupation of the Western Jin Dynasty, or the equalization of land in the Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, they are all out of date in this era of silver waves, or the Song Dynasty. Since then, the land policy of "no land establishment system" has been more suitable for Dongfan.

In addition, this is also to ensure fairness. If the conditions given to farmers are too favorable, it will be a harm to soldiers, sailors, craftsmen and administrators.

It was impossible for Lin Hai to set a lower land tax and then allocate land to his subordinates who worked directly for him. The result of doing so would be that he would need a large amount of land to distribute to the heroes. In the end, even if he succeeded in seizing power, it would only be to re-establish a new state. It is just an agricultural empire, which is not in line with the ultimate goal of allowing this ancient civilization to develop towards the sea.

Of course, imposing heavy taxes also comes at a cost, which will delay agricultural development in Dongpan to a certain extent.

Fortunately, with the support of the Ming Dynasty, which had more people and less land, Lin Hai only needed to allocate more land to farmers and set the tax rate slightly lower than the landlord's land rent, so he would not worry that no one would come to Dongfan to farm.Moreover, Lin Hai did not collect the poll tax. The Ding tax had already been included in the land tax when the Two Taxes Law was implemented in the Tang Dynasty. Later, various dynasties added Ding taxes on the basis of the Two Taxes Law. This was [-]% harsh rule.As for Kang Mazi's "never add more wealth" and his fourth child's "share the family's income", there are too many flaws.

In addition, Lin Hai will not apportion corvee labor. He plans to solve this problem by using hired labor and buying slave labor from overseas. His finances will be completely silver-based.

Based on these points, the imposition of heavy taxes may not have much impact on the development of Dongfan agriculture.

In contrast, another problem is more fatal, that is, to ensure the collection of high land taxes, Lin Hai must change the status quo of 2000 years in which the imperial power has not been extended to counties. He must have enough grassroots administrators to ensure that he has control over the land under his control. The actual situation.

In order to ensure integrity, sufficient manpower must be invested in the supervisory system. In short, it is absolutely impossible to have more than a dozen officials in a county like Daming. This problem is not outstanding yet, but it will be when the population and fields increase. getting more serious.

In addition, the management of industry and commerce is far more complex than that of agriculture, which will lead to a further expansion of the number of administrative personnel.Lin Hai needs a large number of talents who can write and calculate - this is the actual meaning of "education first" he said to Fang Xiu'e.

"Xiu'e, are there any difficulties here at the free school?" Lin Hai inspected Wanhua Free School for a long time and was very happy to learn that all the school-age children were enrolled in school.

This is due to his carrot and stick education policy. First, there is no tuition fee. Second, if any school-age child in the family fails to enter school, the land tax will be increased by 1000%.This combination of hard and soft policies has enabled more than [-] immigrant families to obediently send their children to free schools.

After hearing Lin Hai's words, Fang Xiu'e thought for a moment and then replied: "Not yet, but if the number of students is larger, there will be not enough teachers in the free school."

Lin Hai nodded. Currently, there are about [-] students studying in Wanhua Free School, and the number of [-] teachers is indeed a bit stretched.

He turned to Zhu Niang and asked, "Do you think there is any good solution to the matter Xiu'e mentioned?"

Zhu Niang thought for a while and said: "It's almost the beginning of autumn, and the household registration bureau will be less busy than before. I think it's better to transfer some people to the volunteer school. The more students graduate from the volunteer school, the more manpower we can use." "

"You understand the four words education first very well." Lin Hai replied to Zhu Niang with a smile.

Taipei has a subtropical climate, so only double-cropping rice can be grown. After the beginning of autumn, sowing can no longer be done. At present, land reclamation work has basically stopped, and immigrants are rushing to plant late rice.

Due to the rush of time, this group of immigrants did not plan in advance when clearing land. The work of land distribution, measurement and registration was actually carried out simultaneously with the land clearing. Therefore, the Household Registration Bureau was extremely busy during this period.

Even Lin Hai and Zhu Niang are focusing on household administration these days, and they didn't have time to come to the free school until today.But now that it's time to plant seeds, the Household Affairs Bureau is not so busy.

"So, my method is feasible?" Zhu Niang was very happy. In the past month or so, Lin Hai has been teaching her how to manage civil affairs almost step by step. So far, she has rarely received praise.

"No, because I plan to set up a new department." Lin Hai said, turning to Viper beside him, "Go to Guandu and call me Lun No. [-]."

　Thanks to Jiang Yu Jiang Yu for the reward of 1500 taels!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)