In the golden autumn, thousands of households are busy with farming. Since the household department is responsible for storing autumn grains, it is also one of the busiest times of the year.
Although more than half of the regions in the Ming Dynasty changed to a whip method, and no longer collected rice and wheat in kind but received cash for land tax, nearly half of the regions continued to implement physical collection, so the collection and storage of autumn grain was still a top priority.
Especially the entire northwest region, as well as other southwest regions except Chengdu Yifu, this half of the country still has to rely on the old rules. In addition, areas that have changed to a whip law will start to collect gold flowers and silver - that is, tax money.
, and the tax bank also has matters such as central and local division of accounts and transshipment.
Each of the above matters is a major matter and requires the personal attention and attention of Gao Pragmatic, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
If calculated based on the entire period since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the average annual land tax of the Ming Dynasty was about 29.5 million shi. Among them, apart from the 12 million shi left by the local government, the remaining 17.5 million shi had to be transported to the capital.
Among the 17.5 million shi, about 7.5 million shi were collected in the north, and most of these grains were used as military rations in the Jiubian region. The remaining 10 million shi were used as the income of the Ming Dynasty's center.
In addition, because the Ming Dynasty implemented the two-capital system, the political center was divided into Nanjing and Beijing, so of the 10 million stones, 1.2 million stones were given to Nanjing, and the other 8.2 million stones were given to Beijing.
Among these taxes, about 4 million shi came from the southern provinces. Therefore, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the court converted these 4 million shi into approximately 1 million taels of gold and silver based on the ratio of four stones of grain to one tael of silver.
.Thus, gold flowers and silver became the special term for field tax silver.
As mentioned above, among all the original land tax in the Ming Dynasty, the proportion in the south was higher than that in the north. However, due to the long distance from the south to the capital and the inconvenience of transportation, the loss from the south to the north was considerable, and the loss ratio was about 10%
About one-tenth, which means that for every ten shi of food transported, one shi is wasted.
Calculated based on the Ming Dynasty transporting 10 million shi of tax grain from the south, 1 million shi would be lost on the road alone. This can be said to be an astronomical figure - think about the Battle of Odawara just after Japan, and the support of the Sea Trade Alliance
With 20,000 koku of rice, the Hojo family could survive Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of more than 200,000 for two or three months.
What about one million koku? If you calculate it bluntly, that would be enough to feed the fifty Odawara Castle for two to three months, and the enemy's troops that need to be dispatched are actually more than 10 million. Of course, such a situation cannot happen in reality.
But it is enough to prove that the concept of one million stones of grain is definitely not a joke.
In addition to losses, limited water transport capacity is also a major problem. According to the calculations of a later Mr. Huang, the largest water transport capacity of the Ming Dynasty was between 4 million shi and 5 million shi per year, of which 8.2 million shi of grain were transported from the south to the north every year.
, about 4 million could not be transported to the capital via inland shipping, so the Ming court had to turn these 4 million shi of grain into silver.
In fact, judging from the situation since Gao Pragmatic's time travel, at the turn of the Long-Wan period, if Beijing had not risen rapidly, it would have been difficult for the imperial court to even transport 4.2 million shi of southern grain to the north. Because at that time, the Yellow River was flowing continuously
If there is a danger, at least several counties will be flooded almost every year, and then the waterway will naturally be cut off, making it impossible for ships to pass.
During that time, Gao Pragmatic pushed Gao Gong to carry out sea transportation, and Jinghua itself was responsible for part of it. But to be honest, Jinghua barely made any money transporting the original grains at that time, and the southern sea ships collected by the imperial court were also absent.
Make money transporting grain.
The part where everyone makes money is almost all carrying private goods and returning goods. Private work means that when transporting grain from the south to the north, the ship not only carries grain, but also carries some southern specialties, whether it is Hu silk and Su embroidery, or
Paper and inkstones are fine, but you can’t just transport grain.
As for Jinghua, in addition to making money from this matter, it also developed the Tianjin Port that had just been built at that time because of shipping. And because Jinghua also controlled the Kaiping "Industrial Zone" and Tumut's alkali lake and cattle
Sheep and horses, so they can make a lot of money.
If the southern and northern parts of the Ming Dynasty are forcibly regarded as two independent economies, the reduction of the trade deficit in the northern region will be largely due to the outstanding performance of Jinghua, a giant group.
However, later, the advancement of the whip method accelerated, and the eastern and central provinces of the South gradually began to fully collect gold and silver, and the task of transporting grain was handed over. But the lack of food transportation was not good for Beijing, nor for the shipowners and boatmen in the South.
It’s not a problem, because not transporting grain can free up tonnage for cargo, speed up the circulation of goods, and everyone earns more.
At this time, there is a question: Who will transport the gold flowers and silver?
There is no doubt that even the Jiangnan plutocrats are not willing to compete with Jinghua for this business. After all, the delivery has to be done at Tianjin Port, which is Jinghua’s first private port. The parking fees all depend on Jinghua’s mood. In this way, transportation
The trading of gold and silver in the south became a monopoly business in Jinghua, and yamen across the south had to spend a sum of money every year to pay for freight.
Wait a minute, why are the yamen from all over the south giving money to Beijing? Shouldn't this money be counted as "central tax"? Shouldn't it be paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs as the central finance department?
It's really not the case. This money came from the local government from beginning to end in the Ming Dynasty. Specifically, it can be roughly divided into five steps.
The first step is for the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty to calculate the amount of tax paid by each province. Every year, the imperial court will make statistics on the amount of tax paid this year based on the amount of tax paid in the previous year. The amount of gold and silver that each province should pay this year will be distributed to the local government.
The local government collects gold and silver according to the requirements issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs. This is the starting point of all steps in the process of collecting gold and silver.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In the second step, the local government issues a "voucher". The local government divides the total tax amount in the province based on the tax amount given by the Ministry of Household Affairs and distributes it to different local governments
.
The yamen at all levels issue it layer by layer, and finally the county yamen issues a "voucher" to the specific taxpayer, which is something like a list of taxes payable. This step is very critical. Through this step, the
The task of allocating tax amounts.
The third step is for the taxpayer to seal the silver coins. For example, a certain grain manager (note: "grain manager" will be discussed below), after receiving the receipt, seals the silver coins according to his own tax amount, and keeps the silver coins according to the corresponding
The method is turned over to the county government. Through this step, the taxpayer completes the tax payment process.
The fourth step is for the local yamen to transport the gold and silver to the capital. In fact, the process of the local yamen transporting the gold and silver to the central government is the most complicated link in the entire gold and silver collection process.
In the process of transporting gold and silver by local yamen, a two-tier management system was generally implemented in the past. The so-called two-tier management means that the local yamen is in charge of the paperwork of gold and silver, while the specific transportation work is handed over to private agents.
This kind of agent is actually very similar to the escort agencies often seen in film and television works. According to modern language, it can be called an express company. In addition, there is another situation where the local government arranges for grain chiefs with a larger amount of money.
to undertake the task of transportation.
In the later period, this method in which the grain chief was responsible for transporting tax grains or gold and silver gradually evolved into a kind of feudal labor, and the burden of transportation gradually fell on the common people. The specific situation will be discussed below.
The fifth step is to check and verify the gold and silver from the local government. After the gold and silver are transported to the capital, the Ministry of Revenue usually checks and checks the silver. If the amount is consistent with the tax amount issued by the Ministry of Revenue, the gold and silver will be collected.
Put it into the national treasury, thus realizing all the processes of collecting gold and silver.
Once the steps are laid out, the situation can be clearly explained: whether it is transporting grain or gold, flowers and silver, in the Ming Dynasty it was always the job of the local government, and the central government just sat on the ground to receive the goods. It is good to say that the goods were delivered in good quality and quantity.
As long as the goods are not delivered, or the goods are not delivered in the correct quantity, the responsibility lies entirely with the local party.
Jinghua was obviously the most powerful logistics group in the Ming Dynasty. Its position as a "transportation contractor" was unshakable, its charges were relatively reasonable, and it was deeply trusted by yamen everywhere.
This situation has come to this year, probably because Gao Pragmatic has secured his position as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. The yamen or chief officials in various places suddenly started to clamor for one thing: the abolition of the grain transportation system, and the increase in gold, silver, and physical goods throughout the country.
The grain tax was changed to be transported uniformly by Jinghua.
This incident was so intense that the imperial court received more than 70 memorials from yamen from all over the country within a month, all of which were about this incident. Gao Pragmatic discovered that the first people to make noise about this incident were from the Jiangnan area, with Xin Xin
Officials from the academic school were the main ones, but later on, even officials from the practical school and neutral school officials began to follow suit, resulting in the current situation where the whole court is clamoring for support.
Logically speaking, it should be a good thing for business to come to your door. After all, although Jinghua's fees are not high, since it is a business, it must be profitable. Moreover, Jinghua's transportation power is already strong, and idleness is idle. What's wrong with more business?
?
However, Gao pragmatism became vigilant, always feeling that someone was behind this incident. As for the reason, it may be caused by the interweaving of many aspects. To explain Gao pragmatism's vigilance and even suspicion, we must first talk about the Ming Dynasty characteristics.
Grain chief system.
In September of the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated the "Edict on Autumn Grain in Zhejiang and Liangzhe", which for the first time created a "grain chief system". Simply put, this system means that the court no longer sends officials to collect grain, but collects the grain collected
The important task was given to the villagers with high moral character and high prestige, who were the grain chiefs. The edict stated: "... Among them, those with more land will be the grain chiefs and supervise the taxation of their villages."
The grain chief system was first implemented in Zhejiang, and later it was implemented nationwide and became an important system in the Ming Dynasty. The question is, why did Lao Zhu implement the grain chief system?
In fact, Lao Zhu himself said quite clearly in the edict that the basic reason for establishing the grain chief system was "I have deep sympathy for corrupt officials who have harmed the people and enriched themselves for four years."
In the Yuan Dynasty, there was serious corruption in the officialdom, and corrupt officials oppressed the people. Originally, the various miscellaneous taxes of the court were overwhelming the people, and the officials enriched their own pockets by collecting grain. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in a poor peasant, naturally had hatred for officials, so
For the purpose of caring for the people, he let the people collect taxes themselves.
According to Lao Zhu's idea, in a large hometown, all the folks are our own people, and it will definitely not be too difficult for our own people to collect taxes from our own people. This is the so-called "governing good people with good people, and there will be no danger of invading fisheries." At the same time, we must pay taxes to the farmers
One advantage is that the quota for civil servants is reduced, which can save the country money.
Therefore, Lao Zhu said in his imperial edict: "The establishment of grain chiefs is to facilitate the establishment of divisions and the management of the people. Therefore, in order to facilitate divisions, if a county has a hundred thousand grains, there will only be ten grain chiefs, and no more than twenty chiefs and deputies.
It's up to the grain director to fulfill the duties as scheduled. Diligence depends on the grain chief. If there is a department, the grain officer of the ministry can only be dispatched to a certain place to pay."
Look, what a good policy! It used to take ten or twenty people to run the errands, but now it's left to the private sector to do. You just need to send someone over to hand it over and get it back. It saves people and effort, and also
There will be no scandals of bullying men and women. It is so great, bright and correct. From the imperial edict and between the lines of the edict, any literate person can see how satisfied Lao Zhu is with his grain chief system.
As a result, the grain chief system began to spread. Probably because large grain-producing households were required to bear more social responsibilities, "those with more land" became grain chiefs, and the position of grain chief naturally fell into the hands of landlords and gentry.
There is no doubt that in a feudal autocratic society, rights will inevitably bring benefits, and when rights are given to people with resources, it will naturally be a great benefit. Landlords and gentry are people who have considerable social resources, and then they become the chief of grain.
With his position and the right to collect grain, Cheng can be said to be even more powerful and can gain great benefits.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The first advantage is that you can line your own pockets by being a grain director. The main responsibility of the grain director is to collect, collect, and distribute grain taxes. According to
It is stipulated that the grain chief must first receive a survey from the government, and then issue a grain collection quota to the district chief as required, and then the district chief will assign the task to the commander, who will then collect grain from house to house.
After the head of A receives the grain, he summarizes it to the head of the area, and the head of the area gives it to the head of grain. After the head of grain counts and summarizes it, he is also responsible for escorting it to the designated location, so that it is considered complete.
Obviously, in such a multi-level process, you can use your ingenuity and use various methods to create clever names, engage in fraud for personal gain, and obtain huge profits.
For example, during the Hongwu period, there was a grain chief named Zhu Anai. He cleverly created a lot of tricks, such as collecting rice, cart money, stripping money, making book money, and knowing the rent money of the grain bureau.
, look at the rice samples, etc. Originally, the tax quota given to him by the court was only 10,000 shi of rice, but in the end, this guy not only collected 32,000 shi of rice, but also collected 11,100 copper coins - of course he
It was not for the sake of achieving outstanding performance, and all the extra money besides the 10,000 shi of rice went into his own pocket.
This is not an isolated case. For example, Jiading County Grain Chief Jin Zhongfang and others secretly added eighteen types of taxes and also made a lot of money. There are too many to mention.
It is well known that Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely strict in dealing with corruption, so those who were corrupt officials would be stripped of their skins and cut off the grass. However, like other cases of corruption, even under such harsh punishments, many people still took risks.
, you can see how thick the oil and water in it is.
By the way, in addition to the main business of harvesting grain, the imperial court would often assign other tasks to them. For example, they would participate in inventory and verification of land, prepare fish scale atlases, lead the people to reclaim wasteland, and even provide moral persuasion to the people in the countryside.
, and even participate in judicial proceedings and serve as "jurors". These positions are very lucrative. Even if there is no lucrative part, at least you can boss around the people, teach them from a high platform, and are very prestigious.
In addition, the grain chief also enjoys some political privileges. For example, if the grain chief commits certain crimes, the crime can be reduced by one level, or he can even spend money to avoid the sentence. "Ming Dynasty Records" records: "In December of the eighth year of Hongwu, Guisi issued an edict to the emperor.
Shi Tai said: "Bi set up the grain chief and asked him to take charge of the herdsmen's rent, so as to avoid the disadvantages of being disturbed by the officials, which would be very harmful to the people. From now on, if the grain chief has committed a capital crime or is a homeless person, stop using the stick to prevent him from losing his job.
.'Censor Taichen said: 'The chief of grain has committed a crime, so I promise to pay him some money to atone for my crime.' It's OK."
It is true that the crimes mentioned here do not include abuse of power for personal gain, corruption and bending of the law, and other official crimes. Only "miscellaneous criminals" can be redeemed, but even so, they are already superior to others.
Not only that, in the early Ming Dynasty, the grain chiefs in the early Ming Dynasty were led by officials every year and sent to the capital to "verify their identity" and then pay homage to the emperor.
This is amazing. The rich man in the countryside can actually meet the emperor. Isn't that a great honor? Can he brag about it for a lifetime? At this time, after the emperor read the official's evaluation report of the grain director, he will also praise the outstanding ones.
The chief of grain gave out rewards, and some even directly granted him official status.
For example, Yan Zhenzhi, a native of Wucheng, Zhejiang, was originally a grain chief. When he went to Beijing to report on his duties, Zhu Yuanzhang said that he had done a good job and directly gave him the rank of counselor of the General Affairs Department of the fifth rank. Zhengzhi could be said to have risen through the ranks and reached the sky in one step.
All in all, in the early Ming Dynasty, the local grain growers were really powerful and powerful. It was really a great job. Everyone loved it and wanted to be it. Those who got it would never give it to others.
I hope that my children and grandchildren can continue to do so, so the grain chiefs at that time were all "Yongchong".
But as the saying goes, nothing lasts forever, but later on, being a grain manager turned out to be a fatal job.
Gu Yuanqing, a contemporary, said in "Yi Baizhai Poetry Talk" that there was a nouveau riche in Changshu who bought a large piece of land. At this time, a Taoist priest came to him to ask for alms, but the nouveau riche refused to give, so the Taoist priest wrote an inscription on the wall of his house.
A poem: "If you buy more farms, you will laugh at your stupidity. If you give up your head and grow the grain, you will follow. How many years will he farm? Who will he give it to his children and grandchildren to sell to?"
You are having fun buying land now, but when you become the grain chief in the future, you will cry. This is not nonsense. At that time, the people in Wuzhong "feared the (grain chief) service as much as they feared death" and would rather die.
Don’t be a grain manager.
Zhu Guozhen, who was elected in the 16th year of Wanli, said in his "Yongzhuang Xiaoxiao" that "it is better for people to avoid the service of the grain chief than to be exiled to the garrison." He also told a story about Guo Bo, the magistrate of Changzhou, and the retired old minister Liu
There was a gap in the relationship, so all seven members of Liu Ying's family were assigned to be grain chiefs. When the old minister found out, he was furious to death.
From being sought after by everyone, regarded as the pinnacle of power and fame in the countryside, to being the god of plague that everyone avoids, what happened to the position of grain chief in the two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty?
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Fanyin (Li)", "Herendil", and "book friend 20170107012220447" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: Yesterday’s chapter was probably blocked due to some religious reasons. I changed it and submitted it for unblocking, but it was still illegal. Haha... It seems that I can’t apply for unblocking again within 48 hours. I’ll check it out in a few days.
