In the Han Dynasty, land was privately owned if there was a title deed.
You can grow whatever you want on your own land, or you can buy, sell, and donate it as a gift.
Of course, if you have land, you have to pay taxes, which is the most common land tax.
Throughout the dynasties, land tax and poll tax were the most important sources of revenue for the imperial court.
For example, the most fundamental reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that under the policy of land annexation and tax exemption for scholars, the original quota of land was gradually transferred to ordinary farmers who still had land in their hands.
If farmers cannot pay taxes, they can only go bankrupt, and if farmers go bankrupt, the court cannot collect taxes. Without taxes, it will naturally not be able to raise soldiers and horses. If it cannot raise soldiers and horses, it will not be able to defeat the enemy. If it cannot defeat the enemy, it will naturally perish.
To suppress land annexation, the land must be nominally brought under the emperor's name.
But even if it is just in name, it must provide enough satisfactory benefits. Otherwise, if one's own land is taken away in name, it will inevitably cause huge turmoil and even rebellion.
As for the benefits, there is no need to say more. Just one is enough, and that is exemption from agricultural taxes.
Li Yunze's operation was no different from that of the scholar-bureaucrats in the late Ming Dynasty. As long as he nominally dedicated his family's land to the emperor, he could be exempted from agricultural taxes.
Of course, Li Yunze is not crazy, so he will not transfer the share that others should pay to the remaining farmers, forcing them to go bankrupt and then rebel.
In the early Han Dynasty, the agricultural tax was a tithe tax, which was one-tenth of the tax.
However, during the reign of Emperors Wen and Jing, in order to encourage production, the agricultural tax was changed to thirty-one tax, which was definitely a very benevolent tax amount.
But no matter how kind you are, it is still a tax, and you have to pay grain and straw.
During the autumn harvest, my family had to pay some taxes, but the people next door donated their land to the emperor, but they didn't have to pay anything. Naturally, they had something in mind.
It's just that the tax revenue of thirty taxes per one was too small to allow all farmers to surrender their land to the emperor in name.
Because after surrendering to the emperor, it can no longer be bought or sold.
In the agricultural era, land was the largest amount of property. If this property could not be touched, the impact would still be great.
In order to get farmers to transfer the land to their own names as soon as possible, thus cutting off the source of land annexation, a weapon of national destruction, Li Yunze turned his attention to the head tax.
However, when he proposed this idea, he was opposed by almost all the courtiers at the court meeting in Qingliang Hall.
"His Majesty."
As the prime minister, Zhu Fuyan was the first to come forward to object: "The agricultural tax has been canceled for farmers who have contributed to the land. If we cancel the official tax and oral tax now, the court will have no income."
Taxes and taxes are two different types of fiscal revenue.
Taxes refer to the money farmers pay to the state, while taxes refer to war expenses collected by the state when it goes to war.
Although there are many different names, such as 'tax, rent, donation, tax, transfer, calculation, Yong, grain, grain, cloth, money', etc., they can be summed up in two words: tax.
Taxes are fixed revenue, mainly attributed to court expenses.
Fu is a temporary or permanent increase in the emperor's additional income, which mainly goes into the emperor's private pocket.
When Li Yunze was exempted from agricultural taxes, it caused a huge commotion in the court, which cut off an extremely important financial path for the court.
That is to say, Li Yunze's prestige and strength have reached a certain level. At this time, most of the important ministers in the court are his confidants, especially those civil and military officials who entered the court through the imperial examination. They all support Li Yunze absolutely. In addition, he promised to bring salt and iron to the court.
Specialized revenue
After entering, they were all included in the imperial court, and then the opposition was barely suppressed.
That is to say, the moral level of the officials in this era is not low, they have not yet formed an interest group, and they still have a sense of responsibility to the emperor and the people.
If it were the civil service group during the Song and Ming dynasties, they would either curse the emperor or make the emperor "dissolve in water."
The main income of officials in this era was the salary from the court. Their families were not as strong as the powerful local tycoons, so the loss of profits was not that serious.
The civil servant group in the Song and Ming dynasties had long regarded the court's tax revenue as their own income, and their own family was a local emperor, so of course they could not allow it.
Any emperor who dares to do such a thing must be dissolved in water, fire, earth,... Anyway, he must be killed.
Now, Li Yunze holds the emperor's righteousness in one hand and the power of the world's military forces in the other, so he can push forward forcefully.
However, Li Yunze wanted to use the gift again, and the civil and military officials couldn't bear it anymore.
"Your Majesty, think twice~~~"
Everyone saluted and asked Li Yunze to take back his orders.
Although both the official tax and the oral tax were paid to the Shaofu and were regarded as the emperor's money, when the court needed money, the Emperor was willing to pay from the Shaofu.
If this was avoided, it would also mean the loss of a large amount of income for the court.
Moreover, the arithmetic and oral taxes at this time were mainly used to pay for military expenses.
The importance of military spending is self-evident. Once it is cancelled, it must be taken from the court, which means that it will affect the court's income.
"I didn't say cancel everything."
Li Yunze had a faint smile on his face, "It's just a reorder."
The master sighed. The emperor said he would re-establish the rules, but in fact he fixed the amount of the arithmetic and oral taxes. The hidden population would no longer have an increase in income, which was naturally a huge loss for the court.
The so-called endowment can be viewed directly as a poll tax.
According to the Han system, men and women over the age of 16 had to pay a poll tax to the court. The standard for each person per year was one hundred and twenty qian, that is, one calculation.
This poll tax needs to be paid until the age of fifty-six before it will be waived.
At this time, the registered population of the Han Dynasty was almost over 30 million and close to 40 million.
Among them, the number of men and women aged 16 to 56 is more than 30 million.
Due to the poor medical and health care, food supply, and war diseases during the Han Dynasty, not many people could live to be over sixty years old.
Thirty million people earn 120 yuan a year, which means that the head tax alone can collect a full 3.6 billion yuan a year!
There are also special regulations. For example, for domestic servants and merchants, their dues are directly doubled to two hundred and forty yuan, which are all paid by the family head.
The reason is to restrain powerful men and businessmen. After all, in the eyes of people of this era, slaves and merchants are unproductive and unproductive people.
Also, in order to combat unmarried people, unmarried women over the age of fifteen have to pay an additional fine every year, which will increase every few years until it reaches an astonishing six hundred yuan by the age of thirty.
There are no fines after the age of thirty. After all, in this era, a woman is considered an old woman after she reaches thirty.
If little fairies in the modern world traveled to the past, it would be nonsense to find their sweethearts by themselves. The fine for being unmarried for older adults paid every year alone would be enough for the old father to marry them off as soon as possible.
During the reign of Emperor Wen, the tax was reduced to 40 qian per calculation, but during the Jing Emperor's period, due to the large-scale invasion of the Xiongnu, it was raised back to the level of 120 qian per calculation.
Li Yunze did not change it before, so the current calculation is still one hundred and twenty dollars, but there are exceptions.
Looking around at the ministers, Li Yunze coughed and said, "In the calculation of the tax, the Banzhen barbarians in Bazhong and the seven surnamed Qushuai are all exempt from the tax. The other barbarians only have forty coins per year. I am deeply dissatisfied with this. From then on, Ba
In the middle panel, Zhenman and Qushuai with the seventh surname are not allowed to receive tax exemptions. All barbarians
Every household pays twice as much as a gift!"
As soon as this statement came out, all the civil and military officials made another uproar.
The Dahonglu Temple here was anxious and couldn't help but go out to salute and say, "Your Majesty, being so harsh on the barbarians may cause unrest..."
"What a turmoil!"
Li Yunze's face was slightly cold, "If there is any disturbance, the army will move over! What does the Han people do with so many soldiers and horses? Isn't it just to protect the family and the country? The barbarians make little or no friends, but the Han family's son-in-law wants to make more friends.
I don’t allow it.”
"His Majesty..."
Ji An wanted to persuade him, but Li Yunze had already grabbed the seal on the table in front of him and smashed it directly, "Shut your mouth!"
The noisy Qingliang Hall suddenly became quiet.
The emperor is angry, and no one dares to speak out and seek misfortune at this time.
Seeing Ji An retreating in embarrassment, Li Yunze took a deep breath and said, "I intend to exempt myself from the obligation to serve the Land House. This matter does not need to be discussed further."
The so-called oral tax is also a kind of poll tax.
The difference from Suan Fu is that the scope of its collection is children between the ages of seven and fourteen.
Each person's annual share is twenty cents.
It may not seem like much, but for a child of this age, it must be several million at least. A gift of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions a year can be considered an income.
This money was mainly dedicated to the royal family, that is, "to feed the emperor."
It is ridiculous to say that the emperor and the royal family actually need to rely on children for support. It is really shameful.
However, what is even more embarrassing is that in history, Emperor Wu simply lowered the age for collecting oral tax directly to three years old and started collecting money, and also raised it from 20 qian to 23 qian. This is really shameless.
Emperor Wu was shameless and Li Yunze had nothing to do with it.
But he, Li Yunze, couldn't let go of his shame.
The distinguished ministers had no objections to Li Yunze's intention to exempt the children from oral arithmetic.
After all, this income was originally given to the emperor and the royal family. Since the emperor didn't want it, they would naturally not meddle in their own business.
It’s considered a blessing... I really can’t throw away my income of several billion dollars a year.
At this point, Li Yunze finally revealed his ultimate trump card.
"I didn't say I would waive the tax, I just plan to never add one."
"Never increase the tax, that is, it is limited to the current registered population. Each household only needs to pay the calculated tax of the corresponding population at most, and the excess population in the future does not need to pay anymore. Of course, it must be the farmers who have donated land to me.
You have this qualification."
At this time, the registered population of Han Dynasty was more than 30 million and close to 40 million.
But the actual population size is far more than this.
Part of this extra population is hidden in mountains, forests, lakes and islands. They live in isolation from the world. Many of them are even descendants of people who fled into the mountains and old forests during the chaos of the late Qin Dynasty.
Of course, among these people hiding there are also mountain bandits and water bandits. Naturally, these people do not have household registration.
Also, the servants of a wealthy family are the sons of the family.
Because every child born in a family has to pay a tax of up to 240 yuan every year, which is too much money, so even a wealthy family tries its best to hide its population from the government.
Just like Wei Qing, he also worked as a gangster when he was young.
The real bulk of the hidden population is the children of ordinary people everywhere.
Just like the joke goes, when a clerk comes to visit, the infant child is called Xiaowu, and the bearded man is also called Xiaowu.
One hundred and twenty yuan a year for a person is a big burden for a farmer's family, so it is considered good to have two or three, three or four children admitted to the household registration. Almost all the children who are born later will be
Hidden and not registered, becoming a non-payer of taxes
Black households.
Li Yunze's policy of never giving more money is actually aimed at these gangsters.
Directly exempt these gangsters from their calculations and allow them to live openly and openly in the sun, instead of being gangsters who hide and dodge all day long without even having a formal name.
If all illegal households are included, the actual population of Han Dynasty may exceed 50 million!
After all, after Liu Bang, from the period of Empress Lu to the period of Emperors Wen and Jing, the Han Dynasty was recuperating and recuperating.
Except for conflicts with the Huns on the border, there were almost no major wars or epidemics internally.
After decades of recuperation, the population naturally multiplied and the number increased dramatically.
In this regard, you can understand this if you think about the population of China when the People's Republic of China was founded and the population a few decades later.
And Li Yunze has done so many things just to encourage farmers to give their land to him in name, thereby cutting off land sales, and there will be no more land annexation from now on!