Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 546: Industry impacts agriculture
"Okay, the problem of poor grain harvests in the northern provinces has been solved. Next, Grand Tutor, please tell me about the issue of land abandonment. If my guess is correct, land abandonment mostly occurs in the southeastern provinces, right?"
"Your Majesty is the wisest." Wang Shaozheng stood up and said, "Your Majesty, colleagues, the problem of abandoned land in the southern provinces has become increasingly serious in recent years. In addition to causing the court a lot of trouble in collecting taxes, it has also caused many other problems."
As a traditional agricultural country, before Zhu Youdong's strong changes, almost all social classes in the Ming Dynasty, as long as they had a little surplus, wanted to buy land and then make a profit from the output of the land.
Before Zhu Youdong vigorously promoted high-yield crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, as well as improved rice varieties. The average yield per mu of land in the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty was 2 to 3 shi. When grain prices were stable, this output was worth 1 to 1.5 taels of silver. The land in southern provinces, such as Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, generally had an output of 4 to 6 shi per mu, worth 2 to 3 taels of silver. In some excellent paddy fields in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, southern Jiangxi, and Hunan, two crops can be harvested a year, and the income can be doubled - of course, this is after all a very small number.
According to the rules of that era, the landlord and the tenant would split the output 50-50, and then the landlord would pay taxes to the state.
Although there were many types of taxes in the Ming Dynasty, the total amount generally did not exceed one-tenth of the per-acre output. Various temporary levies and local government manipulations often did not impose them on the landlords, but instead squeezed the self-cultivating farmers. Therefore , the income of the landlords in the Ming Dynasty can be basically calculated: a landlord with more than 100 acres of land in the north can earn about 45 to 65 taels of silver a year, while in the south, it may be 90 to 135 taels or even higher.
And this is just for small landlords who don't have a juren in their family. If there is a juren in the family, not only will their land be completely tax-free, but there will also be a lot of land donated. Although the donated land will definitely not pay you 50% rent, it is still an income, right? Therefore, generally speaking, the annual income of a family with a juren will not be less than 300 taels.
According to the calculation that the purchasing power of one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty is approximately equal to 250 yuan in modern society, 300 taels of silver is 75,000 yuan.
From this, we can see that the life of a small landlord was not very good. However, the productivity of the Ming Dynasty was like this. After all, in the 21st century, there are still 600 million people in the great country whose monthly income is less than 1,000 yuan. In the Ming Dynasty, there was really no better way to get a job except being an official, a soldier, or a farmer. Being able to be a small landlord and not worrying about food and drink was already very good.
Of course, there are rich people in every dynasty. For example, the Xu family in Songjiang owns 200,000 mu of land, which is a fertile land in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The annual income is at least 200,000 taels of silver. Converted into RMB, it is 50 million yuan, which means an annual income of 50 million yuan, not just 50 million yuan in assets.
But, that was all. The Xu family was already one of the richest families of that era, but their income was still not as good as that of Fu Bao and Bonnie today - after all, productivity was limited there.
This is probably the situation of the landlord class, but what about the tenant farmers at the bottom of society?
Generally speaking, a tenant farmer family, consisting of the male owner and the eldest son, two strong laborers, could cultivate at most 60 mu of land with the help of oxen. But in fact, the Ming Dynasty had a large population, and farmers in the northern provinces could only rent 30 to 40 mu of land at most, while farmers in the south were lucky to rent 10 mu of land.
With such a small piece of land, even if the mistress and daughter of the family do some sericulture or other needlework, all the income of the family, after deducting the head tax and corvée tax - it was only after Zhu Youdong came to power that corvée tax was clarified. Before that, farmers had to perform corvée, and corvée has been mentioned many times, it is a multiple harm!
In short, after deducting taxes from their income, this family of four could earn at most 10 taels of silver a year.
10 taels of silver, worth about 2,500 yuan, was the annual income of a family of four at the bottom of the Ming dynasty. This income was barely enough to keep from starving. If something went wrong, such as drought, flood, or someone in the family got sick, the family would be ruined. As for providing education for your children so that they could have opportunities for social advancement, please wait until your family has accumulated enough money carefully for four or five generations without any illness or disaster!
After Zhu Youdong led the Ming Dynasty to start the industrial revolution and turned the Southeast Asian countries into its grain production base, and the entire Greater East Asia became a dumping ground for Ming Dynasty's goods, factories throughout Ming Dynasty, especially in the southeastern provinces, sprang up like mushrooms after rain, which had a huge impact on the local agricultural society.
Now that the factory is established, it needs to recruit workers, right? And how much are the factory workers in Songjiang Prefecture paid now? There are slight differences depending on the type of factory. But basically, a child worker gets about 60 copper coins a month, an adult female worker gets 80, an adult male worker gets 1 silver dollar, and a skilled worker gets 1.5 yuan. If you are a craftsman, it is even higher, you can get 3 to 5 yuan a month.
Let's take the example of the tenant farmer family of four. If all the family members work in the factory, their monthly income is 3 silver dollars, which is 36 silver dollars a year. After deducting the head tax and corvée tax, there will be at least 25 silver dollars left. Their family income has more than doubled! What if there are skilled workers or craftsmen among ?
Chinese people are born with the ability to calculate. Even if this family of four is illiterate, they can still calculate such a simple account. What do you think they will choose when they have the opportunity to work in a factory?
In addition, although the Ming Dynasty did not have many colonies, it had many vassal states. Therefore, the industrial products of the Ming Dynasty had no worries about sales at present, so in the foreseeable ten years, the wages of the workers in the Ming Dynasty would be getting higher and higher.
On the other hand, although the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty was relatively restrained in its overseas grain purchases at the national level, fearing that purchasing too much grain would destroy domestic grain prices and cause low grain prices to hurt farmers, the grain merchants of the Ming Dynasty could not care less: the yield per mu in the Southeast Asian countries was not only high, but they also had three harvests a year. The grain price was much lower than that of our Ming Dynasty. We directly purchased grain from Southeast Asia and sold it in China or in Korea and Japan, which was quite profitable!
That is to say, in recent years, because the Ming Dynasty, Fuguo, Guiguo, and Japan have all used their national power to purchase grain in Southeast Asia, grain prices have risen, indirectly suppressing private grain transactions. Otherwise, private grain merchants would be able to drive down grain prices in the Ming Dynasty!
But that was it. Although the state's vigorous purchase of grain made the grain price in the Ming Dynasty basically stable at one silver dollar to two stone of grain, you have to know that the Ming Dynasty was always a country with a surplus. Silver was constantly flowing in, and the purchasing power of the silver dollar was actually declining. Therefore, the apparent stability of grain prices actually meant that grain prices fell and the income of farmers and landlords decreased.
"Your Majesty, colleagues. This has been the situation in the country over the past five or six years. Workers' wages have been rising, while farmers' incomes have actually been falling. Therefore, once a new factory opens, farmers from the entire village often move in with their families to work in the factory. In some villages, the entire village even pools money or uses the entire village's land as collateral to get a bank loan to open a factory.
As all these people went into factories, naturally there were fewer people farming. Now, the land rent in the provinces of Jiangnan has dropped to 40% or 35%, but it is still difficult to recruit tenant farmers. However, the land rent cannot be reduced any further. If it is reduced any further, the landlords will only get a small amount of income after paying the land tax... As a result, a large amount of land will naturally be abandoned.
After the vassal kings were enfeoffed overseas, they went to various places to recruit their own people to settle overseas with various favorable policies. The vassal kings favored the people of the southeastern coastal areas the most. Because the local people are quick-witted and have strong adaptability. But this is even worse for the southeastern provinces, which already have insufficient farming!
...Your Majesty, as you just said, the northern provinces may be hit by natural disasters in the next 20 to 30 years. If the problem of land abandonment in the southern provinces is not curbed, the grain production in the south will continue to decline. Although we can continue to buy grain from Southeast Asia, I think that grain, which is fundamental to the stability of the world, should still be self-sufficient. "
"Your Majesty." Bank President Cao Sanxi stood up and said, "Every word that Grand Tutor said is true. Land abandonment is also reflected in this minister. The most typical case is that five years ago, the Xu family of Huating used 200,000 mu of land as collateral to borrow 2 million yuan from our bank to open a new factory. At that time, the land in Songjiang was about 20 to 30 yuan per mu. The bank only loaned 2 million yuan for the 200,000 mu of land. At that time, the whole bank felt that it had made a lot of money. Who would have known that now five years have passed and the Xu family should repay the loan. But they said that in addition to the interest, they only need to pay 1 million to ensure that 100,000 mu of land is in hand. They don't want the remaining 100,000 mu of land!"
At this point, Cao Sanxi spread his hands and said, "Why do I need these 100,000 mu of land? Even if the bank takes it, there is no way I can find enough tenants to cultivate it. Even if there are so many tenants to cultivate it, I can only offer 30% of the rent at most. If I pay more, the tenants will run away! But the profit I get from 30% of the rent after paying taxes is far less than the interest on the 1 million loan!"
"Your Majesty, colleagues, the Xu family case is just a typical example. In fact, similar bad debts have appeared in branches of the Ming Royal Bank across the country. The lender has made money, but he refuses to repay the loan. If you urge him, he will say that he will give you the mortgaged land. What does my bank need so much land for? There are many such cases, and the bank has no choice but to try its best to lower the valuation of the mortgaged land before lending. Even in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, some branches have refused to accept land as collateral for lending! And this has made the private lending business flourish again. In the long run, my bank will not be able to make a profit!"
