Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 006 Mining Tax is very meaningful
Looking at Chen Ju, who was sweating profusely, and Zhu Changluo, who was dumbfounded but thoughtful, Wanli felt a burst of joy in his heart!
Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Confucianism as the only doctrine in the world, the Chinese Empire has been running wildly on the evil path of ruling the country with morality instead of the rule of law. By the Ming Dynasty, the atmosphere of ruling the country with morality had reached its peak.
If a person's behavior was slightly different from the Four Books and Five Classics, the words and deeds of the saints, etc., he would be immediately severely impeached. In the Ming Dynasty, if a person's morality collapsed, then no matter how capable this person was or how useful he was to the country, he would be completely ruined.
But the problem is that perfect people do not exist. Who doesn't have some quirks? Even the sage Zhu Xi liked his daughter-in-law and was a mistress. In any era, no matter how great a person is, as long as you use a magnifying glass to search carefully, you can always find his moral flaws.
Therefore, excessively applying extremely high moral standards to people of this era can only create a group of shameless hypocrites.
From a historical perspective, officials in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, especially the Donglin gentlemen who claimed to be moral role models, were a group of typical hypocrites who were perfectionists towards others and liberal towards themselves.
The emperor is the supreme ruler of the country. In this era when morality has reached its peak, the emperor should naturally be a perfect person in terms of morality. The ministers all use the theoretical standard of saints to demand the emperor the emperor does something wrong, he will be criticized fiercely - in the process of criticism, the morality of the ministers seems to be sublimated.
Mencius said: "Govern the country with righteousness, why bother talking about profit?" The civil officials seized on this sentence and severely criticized the Wanli Emperor for levying various mining taxes, customs duties, maritime taxes, and silk taxes over the years. And what about Wanli? In his heart, the Emperor knew very well why these guys kept asking for trouble. But he was unable to argue, so he simply acted like an ostrich: You can scold me as much as you want, but I will still collect taxes. Otherwise, there is no way to guarantee the continued survival of this country.
But people, whether they are ordinary people or the emperor, actually desire to be understood and recognized by others. In the past, it seemed that only Concubine Zheng could recognize and understand the emperor. But now, it seems that there is one more person.
This child was truly sent by God to revitalize our Ming Dynasty!
This method can actually be used to deal with the impeachment memorial against mining tax. Why didn’t I think of it before?
As a time traveler, in the debates of Zhu Youdong's era, if there is no data to support it, any high-sounding truth will seem empty and powerless. Especially in the medical field, if you don't produce a lot of data in various academic exchanges, you will be despised by your peers. Therefore, in the face of Wanli's questions, Zhu Youdong temporarily avoided the civil service group and could not express a clear position. He could only speak with data.
Unexpectedly, the effect was so good!
There is no doubt that with such a small annual income, the Ming Dynasty had to support so many people. It could only do its best to support them. If the country encountered any problems, such as natural disasters, foreign invasions, internal rebellions, etc., it would be unable to make ends meet. At this time, what would the country rely on to overcome the difficulties?
It can only be the emperor’s own private money!
"Master Ju, let me ask you again, how much has the Emperor's inner treasury subsidized the state's expenses in the past five years?"
"Uh... Your Highness made me feel ashamed. After Your Highness reminded me, I suddenly felt that in recent years, the inner treasury has been subsidizing the national treasury more and more frequently, and the amount is getting bigger and bigger. Let's not talk about anything else. At the beginning of this year, the Tuman invaded and the northern border was in turmoil. In order to appease the soldiers, the inner treasury sent 1 million taels of silver to Xuanda, Jiliao and other four towns to make up for the military pay for the past three years... As for disaster relief in other places, when the Ministry of Revenue had no money to pay the salaries of the officials in Beijing, the inner treasury subsidized them, and so on. In total, in the past five years, the inner treasury has subsidized 5.3 million taels of silver."
"How could this happen? How could the country's deficit be so large? How could it last so long?"
Of course, the person who raised this question was not Zhu Youdong, but Zhu Changluo.
"Reporting to the Thousand-year-old Master, it is mainly because the country has been hit by various disasters in the past ten years. The north has been experiencing a continuous lack of rain, while the south has been hit by many rainstorms. Therefore, the production of various crops has been severely reduced. The country often cannot collect taxes, but instead has to issue silver and allocate grain from Taicang for disaster relief."
"Ah, yes."
Seeing Zhu Changluo's relieved expression, how could Wanli not know what this silly son was thinking?
"Prince, are you trying to say that it is because I compete with the people for profits that I have angered the heavens, who have continuously sent down disasters to punish me? If I stop all taxes and make the heavens happy, then there will be good weather and good harvests."
"I dare not! Father has devoted all his energy to this country, and I can only admire him. But... the gentlemen all said... why not stop some taxes first and see if the heavens will respond?"
"Humph! Zhu Youdong, come and tell the prince!"
Ah? My grandpa, the trembling guy opposite, is my father in this life. And to be honest, after four years of contact, this father is really good to me, except for his blind faith in the group of tutors and his stubborn mind.
"Mr. Ju..."
"Grandson...Your Highness..." Chen Ju was about to cry when he heard Zhu Youdong's childish voice: Can't you brush your own father, so you always point at this old slave to brush him?
"Can you please send someone to check for me the composition of the grain tax in the first year of Yongle's national taxation?"
"Yes, I will send someone to fetch the relevant volumes right away."
Why did he search for things from the first year of Yongle? Thanks to the various research results of many Ming history masters in later generations, Zhu Youdong knew that at that time, the Ming Empire's military settlements were at their best.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince, I have found out. In the first year of the Yongle reign, the state collected a total of 31 million shi of tax grain."
"Well, Lord Ju, take a closer look. How much of this grain is produced by the military?"
"Oh...hiss~~Your Highness, did I see it wrong? In the first year of Yongle, the country received a total of 31 million dan of grain, of which more than 23 million dan were produced by military settlements?"
"That's right. That year, because the Jingnan Rebellion had just ended, Chengzu exempted many places from taxes, so there was very little tax outside of the military settlements. Lord Ju, how many military households were there in the country that year?"
"The country has 2.3 million military households and 500,000 regular soldiers."
Okay, I won’t say the rest. If the prince’s father can’t even realize this, then he really has no right to lead this country.
One dan in the Han Dynasty was about 27 kilograms. One dan in the Ming Dynasty was 60-70 kilograms (for the convenience of counting , this book will mainly use 60 dan). In the Han Dynasty, there was a lack of various fats and side dishes. One dan (27 kilograms) of grain was enough for an adult man to consume for one month. However, one dan in the Ming Dynasty was enough for three adult men to eat for one month.
In the first year of Yongle, the state did not need to pay a penny or a stone of grain from the national treasury when it went to war. On the contrary, it could collect grain from military settlements to subsidize state expenditures. During the Wanli period, the grain paid by more than three million military households was only more than three million stones of grain and 92,000 taels of silver, which was only one-seventh of that during the Yongle period. Not only did the state not make any profit from military settlements, it also had to take out a large portion of its fiscal revenue every year to subsidize military households.
Is this caused by bad weather? Bullshit! China is so vast that since the Qin Empire unified the world, there has never been a precedent for the whole country to be affected by a disaster at the same time!
Even if the theory of heaven and man's induction is correct! Even if the mining tax is stopped and God is happy, there will definitely be good weather and good harvests. Can you increase the output of the military settlement by 700%?
