Zhang Siwei left the Yangxin Hall and it was time to get off work at the Zhengshi Hall. Because he was a little frightened today, he decided not to work overtime and went home directly from the palace city to rest.
The Prime Minister of the Cabinet had his own cards, and the luxurious carriage was surrounded by more than thirty knights for protection. He shouted in front that the horses riding the cards in the back were the same as the horses driving the shafts, and they were all good horses selected from a thousand.
Since the Saihanba Association broke down the barriers, the already highly complementary economies of the Han and Mongolian peoples have undergone explosive integration and development. With the prosperity brought about by the Great Reform, the horses from the Mongolian grasslands have grown over the years.
All over the world.
The horse racing club established by the king of Zhou and other clans pushed the horse trade to a level unimaginable by the emperors of the country. Northern nobles and merchants flocked to the horses eliminated from the racecourse. The direct consequence was that the horses were bred to be excellent.
Horse breeding and long-distance trafficking of horses has become a hugely profitable business.
Naturally, the hot demand was transmitted to the grasslands - from the Tianshan Mountains to Nenhorqin, the kings of wild horses were captured by herdsmen in large numbers, and horse dealers from the capital spent huge sums of money on them.
The power of role models is infinite. A single horse can elevate a herdsman family or even a small tribe to a higher level. This temptation is difficult to resist.
Therefore, starting from the tenth year of Wanli, a large number of horses were transported thousands of miles to the inland. Some horse dealers even crossed the Gobi Desert to search for the "bloody horses" that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would rather launch a war to get - namely Ahel.
Czech horse.
Zhang Siwei even heard that the Capital Jockey Club had formed a caravan and was preparing to return to the Silk Road to search for more valuable Aleb horses in Persia and Ottoman.
As Prime Minister, Zhang Siwei naturally cannot be so shallow as to think that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched the war just for a few horses. But from the actual effect, the current emperor instructed the clan to form a horse racing club, which solved the millennium problem of horse politics in the Central Plains - a typical four ounces to move a thousand pounds,
This method can only be used with high mountains and high altitudes.
Returning to the splendid Prime Minister's Mansion, Zhang Siwei washed up, gathered his staff, and held a small meeting in the study to study the tasks assigned by the emperor in the Yangxin Palace today.
It has been a full year since Zhang Juzheng passed away last year and Zhang Siwei took over as Prime Minister of the Cabinet. As his position became more stable, more talents were recommended by various parties, giving Zhang Siwei many choices. In the past half year or so, in addition to Jiang Chunxi, the former staff member,
Several more were added one after another, and the staff team took shape.
Zhang Siwei briefly explained what happened in the Yangxin Palace, and all the staff were in confusion. Shen Xianwu, an staff member from Zhang Siwei's hometown, asked: "Does Your Majesty intend to restore the 'equal land'?"
The so-called "equal land" refers to the land ownership system implemented from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the middle of the Tang Dynasty - land is owned by the state, and farmers can "grant land" for farming and weaving. The tax system is called "renting yongdiao", which means paying for grain and cloth.
As land rent and labor service, the land equalization system is also the economic basis of the "fu-bing system".
After the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, Prime Minister Yang Yan introduced the "Two Taxes Law" to replace the "rent-yong adjustment" in response to the uncontrollable land annexation by nobles and large landowners and the large number of farmers fleeing. The equal land system completely collapsed and was implemented for about three hundred years.
In the successive dynasties after the Two Taxes Law, land annexation became an unsolvable problem. In the eyes of Confucian disciples, Yang Yan, who introduced the Two Taxes Law and disrupted the land equalization system, was more guilty than Shang Yang.
For a rotten scholar, this is not a small crime. However, Yang Yan admitted that private land ownership and encouraged mergers were the cause of the cycle of chaos. His crimes can only be described as "too numerous to describe".
Zhang Siwei shook his head and said: "That's not what the emperor meant." He stood up and explained in detail: "I thought the same thing at first and asked the emperor, 'Where does the land come from?' Because the prerequisite for equalizing land must be that after great chaos, a large amount of land must be abandoned. Only the imperial court has enough land to grant farmland."
"How can there be so much land in the world now? Even if all the land in Northeast China and Myanmar is used for farming, there won't be enough land——"
"But the emperor found another way to solve this problem by using policies to allow landlords and farmers to voluntarily give up their land."
"Let's talk about the homesteaders first. Today, for a family of three or five, the average land per capita for homesteaders exceeds five acres, more than seventy-eight percent. In recent years, the imperial government has been very effective in cracking down on the powerful and suppressing mergers."
Gu Lian
"The emperor wants to use the method of tax exemption to allow the farmers to provide 'ration land'. The imperial court is planning to issue a decree to exchange taxes for land. For example, if a family of three pays three acres of land, they will be exempted from the land tax of six acres for life!"
All the staff were as confused as Zhang Siwei at the Yangxin Hall. Shen Xianwu plucked his fingers and said: "Take Puzhou as an example, with three acres of farmland, the average price of each acre is sixty taels, for a total of eighteen taels - Assuming that a family of three has been exempted from tax for forty years, the tax on six acres of land is about half a tael of silver per year, and twenty taels of silver per year for forty years. The price difference is only two taels. Who does this business? Isn’t it good to keep the land and pass it on to the family? "
Zhang Siwei shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Because the emperor wants to pilot it in Shanxi, I have already settled this account at the Yangxin Hall, but the emperor has other things to say in this big article."
"First, the calculation is not like this. The emperor means that from the time a person is born, all men and women will be granted land. Although your family of three has three acres of land, the more children you have, the more land you will receive. As long as there are more, the land will be farmed for you for free; secondly, the court will implement the "dividing the land into the acres" based on the current whip law. In the future, the land tax and labor will be fully folded into the land, and the land tax will be higher in the future. Yes, the tax-free six acres can be settled; thirdly, Prince Zhongxing measured the world in the sixth year of Wanli, and introduced the whip method in the eighth year of Wanli. In these years, the imperial court's outstanding and famous scholars all received tax refunds based on their treatment. In the future, Not only do I not have this preferential treatment——"
Before Zhang Siwei finished speaking, the study room was already in a state of chaos. Jiang Chunxi was twirling his beard when he pulled off a strand of his beard. He stood up and shouted, "Is your Majesty trying to destroy the roots of the imperial examination?"
Seeing the commotion in the study, Zhang Siwei turned around and asked the maid to heat up two cotton towels. Then he sat on a chair and said with a wry smile: "You can't say that. Nowadays, universities have been established in all provinces, and university graduates must be awarded a degree. What the Emperor means is that in the next few years for official selection, those with degrees will be exempted from the scholar examination and can directly take the imperial examination - in this case, the scope of the tax refund will be too large, and this preferential treatment can no longer be given."
When Jiang Chunxi heard this, he trembled again and burst into tears: "This will not only destroy the roots of the imperial examination, but also cut off the source of orthodoxy! The study of studying things will replace the Five Classics and Four Books, and the study of economics will replace self-cultivation and governing the country!"
Hearing this, Zhang Siwei's face looked uncertain at first, then he stared at Jiang Chunxi with a stern look and shouted: "Chunxi be careful what you say! The emperor said, 'Cheng Zhu can explain Confucius and Mencius, but others can't?' The so-called Taoist theory, But since the Southern Song Dynasty, we have known each other. In the absence of Zhu Xi, wouldn’t Wenjing, Zhenguan, Kaiyuan, Song Renzong, etc. still be prosperous and prosperous?! 'The truth can finally be proved by practice' - this is also the emperor's original words."
Seeing Zhang Siwei's stern expression, Jiang Chunxi couldn't help but feel a little stunned. He bowed and sat down silently, his eyes dull, as if he had lost focus.
Another staff member, Wang Zhiheng, did not lose his mind. He cupped his hands and said: "Prime Minister, you just said that not only do you not have this preferential treatment - you haven't finished speaking yet."
Zhang Siwei kept a straight face and said nothing. He first took a hot cotton towel from the maid's hand and wiped his face vigorously. Then he sent her out and revealed the answer to the mystery: "The emperor wants to implement a 'progressive tax'. The more land you have, the more you pay."
The more taxes there are. If the average per capita exceeds a thousand acres, I am afraid that most of the harvest will have to pay taxes. I am afraid that in the future, big landowners will have no tenants, and the land price will be as cheap as dirt. By then, the imperial court will have enough to buy and grant land -
This is a way to deal with landlords."
When everyone in the study heard this, their faces turned pale. Wang Zhiheng asked, "With this kind of reform, it is really pointless to keep the land."
Zhang Siwei nodded and said: "The emperor is calculating the world's big accounts. Now there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of acres of cultivated land in the country. If the average number of men, women, old and young is equal, the average per capita will be more than six acres - not to mention that there are still 20% of the people.
Work in the city. If the landlord sells a large amount of land, the issue of annexation will be solved."
He sighed and continued: "The emperor said, 'The reform edict has been clear for a long time. Starting from the sixth year of Wanli, there has been no distinction between craftsmen's households, military households, merchant households, and kitchen households', and all people can choose their own careers. However, due to inertia over the years, although
I changed my nationality, but I still do what I used to do.”
“Nowadays, we need to use the land reform to stir up people’s hearts, so that those who want land can get it, and those who want to go to the city can go directly to the city. This will not only solve the contradiction between people and land, but also solve the problem of insufficient labor in industry and commerce, and at the same time encourage
population growth.'"
Zhang Siwei's staff members were all shaken after hearing this. This is really a big article! Zhang Siwei's left sentence said the emperor said, and the right sentence what the emperor meant made everyone in the study fall into waves of brainstorming. Zhang Siwei
After taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, he laughed incomprehensibly, and then said: "The ration farm method has another advantage - the emperor is worried that it is too early to marry a girl today. Once this method comes out, this girl will not grow up unless she grows up."
Old girl, otherwise no one would be willing to marry outside."
Jiang Chunxi had come to his senses at this time, and he asked: "If everything goes well and meets the emperor's wishes, two-thirds of the land will be tax-free in the future! What about the imperial government's financial plan and expenses?"
When Zhang Siwei heard this, the muscles on his face twitched, and he replied in a hoarse voice: "After the officials and gentry pay taxes together, the remaining one-third of the land can be used to pay half of the current land tax. The rest,
Naturally, it will come from industry and commerce. The emperor wants to triple the current thirty-one tax to eight-eight taxes!"