Chapter 83 The Financial Problems of the Ming Dynasty
There is a gap between the government and the people.
There were more than 10,000 officials in the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty had the largest number of people, some people speculated that there were as many as four to five billion people. How could such a small number of officials manage so many people? Even if the Ming Dynasty officials expanded a hundred times, they might not be able to
Everyone takes care of it.
Officials must not expand, because if they expand, the poor financial system of the Ming Dynasty will not be able to support it at all.
This becomes a problem. There is a layer of agents between the government and the people.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw too many things about corrupt officials harming the people in the Yuan Dynasty, and felt that he needed to limit the power of officials so that they could not prey on the people. So the grain chief system came out.
The essence of the grain chief system is to select virtuous people among the people to manage some affairs on behalf of the government. Zhu Yuanzhang regarded the grain chief as a representative of the people, and even escorted the grain chief to Beijing every year. Zhu Yuanzhang would select some to receive in person and ask the people
Life.
Even when I met talented people among them, they were transferred to the government. One of them even became the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
But is this system really good?
In other words, there are certainly many officials in the Ming Dynasty who are not good people. Although there are only a few corrupt officials like Guo Huan, many officials may not be innocent. But are these grain chiefs good people?
Let me just say one thing: many families who are grain chiefs have become wealthy families and tyrannical families in the countryside, unless they encounter any misfortune.
Even in the late Ming Dynasty, many things could not be implemented without local government consultations with large private households. Perhaps this origin may not necessarily exist.
It’s hard to say whether Zhu Yuanzhang’s idea is right or wrong. After all, it is difficult for later governments to maintain rural governance. Even after 2000, many rural governments are withdrawing. Some powerful private figures and churches everywhere have replaced the previous government functions.
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This is also based on cost considerations.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very sentimental about the grain chief system. In fact, the grain chief system was not too wrong when implemented in Zhu Yuanzhang's era. He heard He Xi talk about the problems of the grain chief system, and he had some opinions in his heart, but did not express them. He said: "
Say the important thing."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, I have already seen that the Ming Dynasty's finances are in extreme chaos. The central government's balance is too small. Local finances are not much, and the rules are too rigid. It is not conducive to local development. I believe that a three-level financial system should be established. At the county level,
Provincial level, and the central three-level finance. Provide for collection at all levels, separate central taxation and local taxation. Gather the world's wealth in the center and then distribute it."
"As for the transshipment and allocation of some grains, the civilian movement was changed to the official movement. This was also the reform of the Qing court in later generations."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Do you know how much food transportation consumes?"
"In terms of a hundred miles, it will probably consume one to two percent. In terms of a thousand miles, it will probably cost one catty to transport one catty. This is not even a difficult and dangerous place. If it is thousands of miles away, it will cost several times to transport one catty.
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"The Ming Dynasty's taxation is food."
"If you follow your method and make a lot of efforts, you will have to collect more than three times the tax to supply consumption."
"The people can't afford it."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, this is wrong. Since transporting grain is so hard, then after your Majesty turns to people's transport, will this consumption disappear? No, your Majesty can't see it. According to the transportation route designated by your Majesty,
, in total, it is certainly better than the transportation of grain to the central center, and then the central center has to dispatch it. But your majesty does not know that the consumption of centralized transportation and centralized storage is much smaller than the consumption of scattered transportation by the people."
"It's hard to say whether the consumption is large or small."
"Moreover, there is no need to transport all the grain to central storage. Warehousing can be set up in key places and directly managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs. It can also intercept more grain in remote provinces and transport less grain to Beijing. More importantly, it can be discounted.
Your Majesty has also read history. In fact, Zhang Juzheng’s reforms were actually changes to grain discounts."
"There's always a way."
"The biggest problem with His Majesty's fiscal policy is that the court has no way to change it. Because one move affects the whole body. Only Your Majesty can change the whole. And it is the local officials and even the people who find the problem. It is difficult for the people to change the final policy.
Things from the lower levels are fed back to the central government. Therefore, over time, even if the people sell their children and daughters because of the hardships of transportation, the higher ups will not know."
Many of Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas were very advanced.
The finances of the Ming Dynasty were as chaotic as a spider web. It was even detailed that the grain from a certain township had to be transported to a certain military camp. Generally speaking, the transportation time of grain would not exceed 200 miles for the convenience of the people.
It seems good. But it is difficult to adjust.
After all, after the Jingnan War, the Beijing camp was transferred to Beijing. Many Nanjing health camps also moved to Beijing. Before, some people in Nanjing transported food to the Beijing camp, which was only a hundred or two hundred miles away. It only took a few days.
Not difficult.
But when the Beijing camp arrives in Beijing, the people in these places have to be transported to Beijing. That is more than two thousand miles.
It can be said that the travel expenses have been several times that of that little food.
This problem was not solved later.
Why not follow this principle and transport the counties near Beijing to the Beijing camp?
The problem is that each of these counties has its own problems. The food in this county is supplied to the border, and the food in this county is supplied to the palace. And so on. If there is a move here, the food at the border must be rearranged. Arrange the food at the border,
More mobilization is needed.
Basically, if you move one place, many places will be affected. And these are all interests.
As long as you make a move, someone will gain and someone will lose. When it comes to issues of interest, everyone will fight for it.
Finally, we found that solving the problems in these counties near Nanjing requires local governments to pay a price. Who is willing? Who is not willing?
Therefore, unless the emperor personally intervened, this matter would not be accomplished.
In fact, from a conceptual point of view, although Zhu Yuanzhang's fiscal policy has certain problems, it cannot be said that it is not a solution. But the problem is that the error tolerance rate is too low and it is almost impossible to modify. It is both rigid and dogmatic, and wasteful.
Yes. Zhu Yuanzhang is dealing with government affairs day and night and is also very concerned about these details. But what will happen in the future?
Many times, Ming officials had no choice but to use the ancestral system as an excuse. Take the financial system as an example. When the financial system of the Ming ancestral system completely collapsed, the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty ended with the Ming court.
Until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to say that a complete financial system was established.
During the Kangxi period, the Three Feudatories were in rebellion. As the source of finance, the entire south was caught in the flames of war. How did the Kangxi court continue the war?
It was because at that time, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue abolished the Zhu Yuanzhang model in the Ming Dynasty, and instead ordered all local taxes to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance, and the power of expenditure and cashiers was all vested in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Although such extreme suppression of local finance would have great disadvantages, it gave
Only after Kangxi had prepared enough military expenditures did the finances of the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty go in two directions.
The finances of the Qing Dynasty have always been more than 30 million taels, which is a figure that the Ming emperor could not even imagine. Although the taxes in the Qing Dynasty were heavier than those in the Ming Dynasty and the price of silver was lower, the finances of the Ming Dynasty should not have dried up to millions of taels.
problematic.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time. He Xi's words hit him hard.
Zhu Yuanzhang's financial principle has never been that the court has excessive taxes, but intentionally compresses all aspects of finance to maintain a government with low consumption and thus provide low taxes to the people. This is also Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang himself had personal pains about excessive taxation and extortion.
It's just that Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that the financial system he had painstakingly created would be so unbearable in He Xi's eyes.
In fact, there is nothing strange about He Xi's three-level financial system. This was mostly done in the Tang and Song Dynasties before. However, it was not necessarily three levels. It was just collected one level at a time and transferred down one level at a time.
But Zhu Yuanzhang knew better than He Xi that every time a bureaucracy passes through another hand, there will be a layer of waste. This kind of tax is collected from the local government, and then transferred down from the central government. The waste involved is very, very shocking.
It's no lie that the geese will pluck their feathers.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not looking for trouble on his own. He wanted to create a financial system by himself. It was targeted.
When He Xi saw that Zhu Yuanzhang had no reaction, he became more and more enthusiastic. After all, in He Xi's opinion, the Ming Dynasty was not bad in other aspects. Although the guard system was stretched, it was functional. Needless to say, the civil service system was almost completely untouched by the Qing Dynasty.
It has been used in many places, and it has proven to be quite successful. Only the finance of the Ming Dynasty, if I don’t say much about it, I will shed tears if I say too much.
He Xi continued: "There is another major problem in the Ming Dynasty's finances, and that is the issue of treasure banknotes. Your Majesty, how many taels of treasure banknotes are equal to one tael of silver now? Do you know?"
"Anyway, I don't know. I discovered in Hangzhou that the ratio of Hangzhou's banknotes is different from that of Nanjing's banknotes. Generally speaking, Nanjing's banknotes are the least valuable, and the more remote you go, the more expensive they become."
"On the one hand, things are rare and valuable. There are too many treasures in Nanjing, but there are few in remote places."
"On the other hand, people in Nanjing no longer believe in treasure banknotes. People in remote areas have not seen it very often, and they still believe in the imperial court. But in the future, it is estimated that even remote places will not believe in treasure banknotes."
"I estimate that in the next few years, the price of precious notes compared with silver will probably fall below one hundred to two hundred."
Zhu Yuanzhang shouted: "Do they dare?"
He Xi said: "This is not a question of whether you dare or not. It is a matter of economic operation. Regardless of the individual interests of many people, the court can force one person or two to suffer losses. But it cannot force everyone in the world to suffer losses."
"Your Majesty, that's not how the banknotes are printed. Why didn't Your Majesty learn the method of printing the banknotes of the Southern Song Dynasty instead of the Yuan Dynasty?"
Zhu Yuanzhang took a long time to sigh and said: "Why don't I know what you are talking about? It's just that in the world, how many people are proficient in the method of treasure money? I just think that if I don't use this thing, it won't hurt the people, and the national treasury will be self-sufficient."
He Xi was stunned and sighed in his heart. Zhu Yuanzhang's economic achievements were far inferior to his political and military achievements. This chapter has been completed!