Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 671 Blocking the British Development Process
Soon, the cabinet issued a decree to benefit farmers all over the world, that is, to abolish the agricultural land tax for the entire Ming Dynasty.

This is another good policy after Daming banned poll tax, corvee, and guide system.

Except for the capital group, which was indifferent, all social strata clapped their hands and applauded, shouting that this is the grace of the emperor in the prosperous age, chasing Yao and Shun far away.

The complete exemption of agricultural tax will undoubtedly benefit the gentry in the south where the gentry group still exists, and the part of the benefits that should have been exploited by the court and bureaucrats will be completely transferred to the gentry as land annexation intensifies.

Thus prompting more people to leave the land, enter the city, and become workers.

As for the north and outside the customs, where there were few or even few gentry groups, the owner peasants were better protected because there were few gentry in the early stage and the process of land annexation was slow.

And because there is no exploitation by the basic officials of the imperial court, the self-cultivating farmers will not be exploited so much that they are forced to sell their land, which also slows down the speed of land annexation.

Since the majority of self-cultivating farmers in the north and outside the customs are engaged in agricultural production, as far as the entire Ming Empire is concerned, the exemption of agricultural taxes has promoted the enthusiasm of farmers for production and increased the grain output of the Ming Empire.

Perhaps in the later period, as the ruling group grows, the land will still inevitably accumulate in the hands of a few people.

And with the development of industry and commerce and the bankruptcy of the small peasant economy, it is still inevitable to be affected by the bourgeois revolution and even the later proletarian revolution.

However, that time will not make the situation worse until hundreds of years later.

As the emperor, Zhu Youjian is confident that he will eliminate all external forces that may block the self-evolution process of Ming Dynasty through reform or revolution within the time he is still alive.

The Ming Empire Council and the House of Representatives will still question and oppose some of the cabinet's decrees, and even make some suggestions.

The cabinet will also adopt some and will not adopt it, but it does not completely ignore the opinions of the Senate and the House of Representatives, so the decrees issued will not be so disgusting to people with a class of interests.

Zhu Youjian also conveyed to his princes why he chose to set up the two houses, so as to let them understand his good intentions in doing so.

"We are members of the royal family, shouldering the important task of the stability and development of this empire. We cannot favor any one side. Whoever among you will inherit the throne in the future, please remember that the chief minister of the cabinet should try his best to choose the concept of governing the country and the two sides. The hospital is different."

Zhu Youjian said so.

"Father, why?" Zhu Ciwu asked.

"This is called the art of imperial checks and balances, and it is also the way of peace in the world. If you choose the chief minister of the cabinet who has the same philosophy of governing the country as the two houses, then the cabinet will not listen to you, but will listen to the two houses."

When Zhu Youjian said this, the princes nodded with a half understanding.

Zhu Youjian smiled slightly, no matter whether these princes understood it or not, he believed that they would understand it in the future.

The current state of the Ming Empire is Zhu Youjian's most satisfied state, and because of this, he can look at the world with peace of mind and compete globally.

Now Zhu Youjian is still most concerned about the Stuart dynasty in England.

He knew that the current king of the Stuart dynasty in England was James II.

The difference between the new bourgeois aristocracy and the old bureaucratic aristocracy in Britain is the belief in religion.

The British bureaucratic forces believe in Catholicism, which represents conservative.

The British bourgeoisie believed in the radical Protestantism.

Among them, the bureaucratic forces are dominated by Scotland and other places.

The bourgeois forces are dominated by England and other places. ,

The current British King James II is a Catholic, that is, a conservative, and is sparing no effort to restore the interests of Catholicism throughout England.

But Zhu Youjian remembered that more than ten years later, that is, in [-] in the Western calendar, the British bourgeoisie would launch a coup and force James II to abdicate.

At the same time, the British bourgeoisie established William III and Mary II as the lords of the United Kingdom, and passed the "Bill of Rights", which limited the royal power and officially completed the bourgeois revolution.

This brought the whole of England into an era of rapid capital development, and eventually became the empire on which the sun never sets, which was once the strongest empire in the world.

What Zhu Youjian wanted was to prevent England from becoming the strongest empire, so as to eliminate this empire that was likely to become his great enemy in the future ahead of schedule.

After all, it will take a long time for the development of the domestic situation in the Ming Dynasty to complete the historic institutional transformation.

The price paid for small changes in the British Empire was small.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian must kill the bourgeois revolution in the British Empire in the bud.

"Should my will be conveyed to Xiyi?" Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking Ma Jixiang of Dongchang.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it should be here soon. The distance from Daming to Xiyi is really too far. Most of the time, the news we get is from there a year ago."

Ma Jixiang said.

Zhu Youjian also feels that geographical distance is still the biggest problem that plagues him in ruling Ming Dynasty and even manipulating the world.

"It would be great if there was a telegram," Zhu Youjian couldn't help thinking to himself.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking Xu Yinsha, an internal officer at the side: "How is the development of Daming Electricity now?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, now Xu Yin and others have just manufactured a friction generator, using sulfur to create a rotating body, generating electricity through the friction of the rotating film, and using this to observe electrostatic induction."

Hearing what Xu Yinsha said, Zhu Youjian had to sigh: "It's really too slow, go and pass this Xu Yin into the palace, I will have a good chat with him."

As a science student, Zhu Youjian is no stranger to electricity.

Although how the charge is generated and the specific reason for the formation of the current is still an unsolved mystery of physics.

But Zhu Youjian knew the basic law of charge, Ampere's law and electromagnetic induction.

In this way, Zhu Youjian also knew the basic principle of generating electricity and the basic method of storing electricity.

But now because Zhu Youjian spends his energy in popularizing natural science on basic knowledge, such as the basic laws of physics, the periodic law of chemical elements, and the basic distinction between organic and inorganic chemistry.

As a result, many researchers in Ming Dynasty still only study electricity based on their curiosity about electrical phenomena in nature.

Therefore, Daming has not yet developed significantly in electricity, which is about the same level as the development of electricity in the West.

There are even quite a few scientific researchers in Ming Dynasty like Franklin who used metals to collect electricity and feel the existence of electricity during thunder and lightning weather.

Of course, because of this, many pioneers of electrical research in the Ming Dynasty were struck to death by lightning like Wan Hu.

There were still some traditional superstitious people in the Ming Empire who believed that they used metal equipment to offend the Thunder God and the Thunder Goddess, which made fewer and fewer people in the country dare to study the Thunder God and the Lightning Goddess.

But there are still people who persist, and Xu Yin is one of them.

(End of this chapter)