Gao Pragmatic began to reform Shuimayi more than ten years ago. Until last year when he took office as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to gather financial power and completed the supervision of the Shuimayi system by the Ministry of Revenue, the "dual leadership system" of Shuimayi was basically realized.
The architecture is completed.
In essence, this system can be seen as the Ministry of War owns the nominal ownership of Shuimayi, while the Ministry of Revenue owns the actual operating rights of Shuimayi.
In this way, the Ministry of Household Affairs has assumed some of the functions of the "State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission" to a certain extent - of course it has not been copied, because the differences in national systems are objective realities, and some things cannot be copied even if they want to, and high pragmatism has to do its best.
Possible "godlike".
This time, his innovation proposal for the express delivery shop is to turn the express delivery shop into the State Post Bureau. In a highly pragmatic vision, the main operation idea of the express delivery shop in the future will be to use private letters and light services.
A large amount of parcel delivery revenue was used to support the state function of delivering information to the imperial court.
In other words, state functions are still its basic functions, but in order to ensure that this basic function is not disordered and does not cause serious financial pressure on the country itself, the imperial court allows the express delivery shop to use the basic facilities and organizations invested by the country in the early years to carry out
Private business uses the income from private business to relieve the pressure brought by its huge financial expenditure.
What are the basic facilities and organizations invested by the state? The most obvious basic facilities are, of course, the countless "pavements" built across the country, and the so-called organizations are the many pavilions maintained by the court. But in fact, the roads themselves are also basic facilities.
, although the mountain roads in some places are relatively bad, no matter how bad they are, they were repaired in the past, so it cannot be regarded as an investment just because the quality is poor.
The investment in these facilities and organizational structure are the basis for the court to conduct three-level accounts sharing with shops and soldiers. According to Gao Pragmatic's current thinking, the court can account for 30% of the "postage revenue" by then, and each express delivery shop can account for 20%.
, half of the workers who perform postal tasks are themselves, and the system of more work, more gain is implemented.
In addition, Gao Pragmatic also stated in the "Innovation Station Shu" that the 30% taken by the imperial court should be based on a basic principle, that is, it should be earmarked for special purposes and must not be misappropriated at will. In addition to ensuring the construction and maintenance of facilities such as express delivery shops and buildings, this money
etc., and should also be used for road maintenance, road construction, ferry, bridge construction and other related matters.
According to what Gao Jingshi said in his essay, this money will definitely have a surplus in addition to maintaining existing facilities. Those surpluses will be used over time to build roads, bridges and other facilities that can facilitate the people. This in itself is also a move for the court to benefit the people. Over time,
, will surely make the people of the world "see the road and the bridge, and all remember your kindness."
Shuimayi solves the problem of people's travel, and the express shop solves the problem of delivering letters and packages. At this time...it seems that there is something missing?
That's right, we still need to deliver the goods.
The last carriage of the troika of the Ming Dynasty Station System is the Delivery Station. The Delivery Station was originally a system for transporting materials in the Ming Dynasty. It was mainly responsible for military supplies and money and grain taxes collected by the court. Therefore, the Delivery Station is the same as the water transportation of later generations.
It is a transportation system that has a large transport volume but does not pursue speed.
According to the regulations of the early Ming Dynasty, the delivery station "sets up ships and all are decorated with red. For example, if there are 600 materials, there will be thirteen watermen in each boat; if there are 500 materials, there will be 12 people; if there are less than 400 materials, there will be 11 people; if there are less than 300 materials, there will be 11 people in each boat.
There are ten people. All of them choose to pay for their food with less than five dan.
A land delivery station is like a large cart carrying rice and ten stones, with three husbands, three oxen, and ten bags; a small cart carrying rice and three stones, one husband, and one cow. Each husband has one cow, and the electorate
Those who have fifteen shi of grain will make up for it. If there is insufficient food, all the households will share the grain and become one husband."
In the early years, there were dedicated officials responsible for transportation, including an ambassador, a deputy envoy, and a centurion. The transportation tasks were undertaken by soldiers in land stations, and the water routes were undertaken by shipowners in various places.
This kind of delivery transportation basically adopts fixed points, fixed routes, and relay methods. As a full-time delivery business, the delivery office has well organized land transportation, sea and river transportation, which can be regarded as a kind of history.
improvement.
But it is a pity that like many other systems formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the delivery station system also failed to persist. During the Hongzhi period, the number of delivery stations nationwide reached as high as 324. However, during the Wanli period, Gao Pragmatic found through statistics that
The number of delivery offices across the country has already dropped sharply. The latest statistics show that there are only more than 100 delivery offices left, almost on the verge of extinction.
What was a little embarrassing was that Gao pragmatic discovered that the fastest period for the imperial court to abolish delivery stations was during the Longqing reign of the late emperor Mu Zong. In just two years after Gao Gongqi returned to Beijing, 113 delivery stations were abolished across the country.
However, Gao Pragmatic did not keep the matter secret because it involved his third uncle Gao Wenzhenggong. Instead, he analyzed the origin and impact of this situation in detail.
According to Gao's pragmatic analysis, Gao Gong's main reason for abolishing these delivery stations was actually very simple: there were too many old debts left over from the Jiajing period, and the court was seriously in deficit. The arrears of official salaries and military pay together were as high as
More than ten million taels.
Considering that the official annual income of the imperial court at that time was only about 4 million taels (excluding local retention and direct transfer of land and grain taxes from Jiubian), after deducting normal expenses, it was barely enough to maintain every year. If this continues without changes,
That means that this old debt may last forever.
The so-called finance boils down to two points: revenue and expenditure. When there is a financial problem, there are only two solutions: increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
Gao Gong's approach is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure at the same time.
In terms of open source, while measuring the fields, we implemented a whip method to collect money from the country; at the same time, we opened sea gates (Guans, referring to the border gates after paying tribute) to collect tariffs; we also set an example to collect money from various industries in Beijing that had begun to take shape.
Business taxes, etc.
In terms of cost-saving, not only did the hugely expensive delivery center have to eliminate many low-utilized parts, but even the tomb of Emperor Longqing was directly used in the place where Jiajing built it for his father, leading to the weird incident of his grandson using his grandfather's tomb (
Of course, Jiajing did not actually move my father’s tomb here after it was built). Gao Gong did a lot of things like this under pressure.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Gao Jingshi said in "Innovation Station Shu" that it would be very unfair to criticize Gao Wenzhenggong's handling of the year from the current standpoint. Because, in Gao
During the eight years that Wen Zhenggong was in power, the imperial court not only filled a huge deficit of more than 10 million taels, but also basically completed the construction of a new nine-sided defense system (referring to the hollow enemy platform system proposed by Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang). Among them, the former
About 20 million taels of silver were spent before and after. If we didn't rely on increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, how could we expect it to fall from the sky?
But the predecessors had things that their predecessors should do, and today's people also have the responsibilities that today's people must bear. Back then, the delivery location could not be withdrawn, but now, it is also necessary to think about how to continue.
At first glance, if you want to solve the problem of delivery stations, you can also follow the idea of the express delivery shop, which is to open up civilian services to earn funds to maintain the country's public responsibilities. For example, since the express delivery shop can deliver letters to the public, then
Of course, the delivery office can also deliver goods to private parties. It seems to be exactly the same thing. How difficult can it be?
However, the situation at the delivery office is really different. The reason is that the origin of the personnel at the delivery office and the local jurisdiction it belongs to are completely different from Shui Ma Yi and Express Shop.
As I said just now, all positions in delivery are called "centurions." When you hear the word centurion, it comes from the military system.
Yes, the main personnel of the delivery station do come from the military. To be precise, they mainly come from the local health office, but its management authority is not unified.
What is "non-unification of management rights"? As part of the e-mail system, delivery at the court level is also under the management of the Vehicle and Driving Department of the Ministry of War, but in its specific operation, it is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, state, county, and health department where it is located.
For example, during the Chenghua period, there were 21 delivery stations in Shanxi, of which 12 were under the jurisdiction of the county where they were located, 6 were under the jurisdiction of the scattered prefecture where they were located, 2 were under the jurisdiction of the direct prefecture where they were located, and 1 was under the jurisdiction of the prefecture.
In the Shitu Guards area, the delivery stations were under the jurisdiction of the local guards. The 33 delivery stations in Liaodong recorded in "Liaodong Chronicles" first published in the first year of Hongzhi (1488) were all "controlled by the guards".
With a tube”.
It is already quite complicated, but there are even more nonsense. For example, this kind of ownership is sometimes adjusted. For example, in the fourth year of Yongle (1406), the Jieshou Delivery Office originally belonged to Gaoyou Prefecture, and it belonged to Shaobo Delivery Office in Jiangdu County.
The place was suddenly placed under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Prefecture.
The same situation existed in the delivery offices under the jurisdiction of the guards. For example, in the fifth year of Yongle (1407), the Weisha delivery office of the Puding Guards was changed to the jurisdiction of the Annan Guards.
Along with the jurisdiction, the ambassador of the delivery office must also follow the office and be classified as a local government and security official. Except for a small number of prisoners assigned, the delivery officers and defense officers are mainly from civilian or military households.
The Qian sect was included in the Yi Chuan corvées of prefectures and counties.
The general principle of deliverymen is to send grain to the farmers. The deliverymen of the Land Delivery Station are charged by grain households with a minimum of fifteen dan and work together to build a cart. Each person is provided with an ox. If the amount is less than fifteen dan, then
Several households pool their food together;
The price difference between water delivery carriers is less than five stones, which is the same as the number of people driving the boat. Every thirteen, twelve, eleven, or ten carriers purchase six hundred materials, five hundred materials, and four hundred materials.
, three hundred materials for the ship. If the ship is damaged, the department will "commission officials to calculate the materials and repair it."
Cars and ships obviously cost a lot of money to build, and the imperial court also wanted to ease the burden on the people. Therefore, "the guilty people bought ships to redeem themselves" and "the nearby people and criminals were used to prepare carts and oxen."
Situations arise from time to time.
Even so, the construction or supply of vehicles, boats, and cattle still became a heavy burden for the people who were required to serve. In order to ensure the operation of the delivery stations, the imperial court and local yamen gradually allocated the labor into local corvee in practice.
, so that the people on one side "have no distinction between each other and all contribute money to receive it."
The funds required for delivery are often divided into the taxes of several surrounding states and counties, and their names include deliverymen, watermen, defenders, vehicles, boats, etc.
Due to the different scales of delivery stations, the required funds are also different. Taking Daxing Delivery Station as an example, its establishment is "fifty vehicles and thirty guards", and its scale is at a medium level in the country. In the early years of Wanli
At that time, Daxing's delivery required 2,280 taels of silver per year, which were provided by Zhending, Guangping, Shunde, Daming, and Hejian.
A mid-level delivery office costs more than 2,000 taels per year. There are more than 100 and less than 200 delivery offices left in the country. If we calculate it as 150 and use the average price, it will cost a year.
At least three hundred thousand taels, and this is pure expenditure, without any income.
Three hundred thousand taels. This was the result of Gao Gong's dismissal of a large number of people. Think about it, twenty years ago when Gao Gong first came to power, the imperial court's annual income was less than four million taels.
It costs almost 10% to transport the place. How can the imperial court survive without poverty?
But some people will find the problem and say that since this money comes from the local government, what does it have to do with the central government? What does it have to do with Gao Gong at that time and Gao Pragmatism now? This idea is a bit naive.
The court's land tax was divided between the central government and local governments, and the proportions of each place were different (for example, Suzhou was always heavily taxed by the court, and the central government's proportion of tax payments was particularly high).
Moreover, as mentioned before, Zhu Yuanzhang's small-farmer consciousness led to the Ming court's lack of financial central control ability from the beginning. Local accounts seriously lacked the means of transfer payments of later generations. It was retained for the local area first, and the remaining part was then transferred to the central government. Because the central government
If there is no money all the time, it will be impossible to use taxes from rich areas to subsidize the development of poor areas, causing the rich to stay rich and the poor to stay poor.
Under this backward and outdated financial system, coupled with the great autonomy of local government offices under the Ming Dynasty, many localities would list a lot of items that they needed to spend and report them to the central government, and then "retain" a large number of things to themselves.
", the money finally sent to the central government was treated like it was being sent to a beggar.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Gao Pragmatic has always believed that before communication methods have reached the era of electronic instant messaging, it is best for the court’s management system not to be too complicated, especially not in one place
One policy - that thing was only played by later generations, and the Ming Dynasty couldn't play it at all. In later generations, it was called adapting measures to local conditions and advanced management, while in the Ming Dynasty, it was called high-spirited and wrangling management.
Gao Situ made it clear in "Renovation of Post Offices" that management rights must be unified first, and the delivery station should be changed into a Heshui Horse Post and Express Delivery Shop, and then the three carriages should be merged and managed. Only in this way can unnecessary unnecessary costs be reduced.
The organization and level of the organization should be kept in order to avoid having to issue multiple orders. If something goes wrong, the responsible person will not be found and the situation will be over.
But words are easy to say, but things are not easy to handle. First of all, the first obstacle is not small: except for some criminals, most of the personnel at the delivery station come from various police stations. You, Gao Situ, want to unify jurisdiction. Is this jurisdiction still necessary?
Can it be returned to your household department?
Oh, the financial power belongs to you, but you still want the military power? Do you want the dragon chair in the Huangji Palace?
Fortunately, Gao Pangpang obviously understands this truth, so what he proposed is that the Ministry of War should deepen the management of the inn system and ensure that the Chai Driving Department can manage the entire inn system. In other words, the power of the Chai Driving Department will be increased, and officials are expected to need to
Increase.
Everyone thinks this deal is feasible: adding a few more officials to the Driving Department will reduce a large number of subordinate organizations. It is a good deal from a financial point of view, and it is even more cost-effective from the perspective of future employment opportunities for scholars.
But Gao Pragmatic said again that the power of the Vehicle and Driving Department of the Ministry of War has been expanded, and sole control of the huge post system after the reform is contrary to the original intention of the ancestral system - the original intention is to restrain and supervise each other! Therefore, Gao Situ suggested that for the time being, it should still be like a water horse post.
Generally, the Ministry of Household Affairs dispatched personnel to supervise it. After the reform was basically completed in the future, the court would launch a new organizational structure according to the situation.
In fact, Gao Pangshi has already begun to play a big game here. This big game is simply "increasing ministries" - the six-ministerial system has not kept up with the times, and the reformed Ming Dynasty needs more ministries.
The post station is the postal department that will be established in the future in the highly pragmatic plan. However, this must be done slowly, and the foundation must be laid first, so that further suggestions can be made in the future.
Now, what Gao Pragmatic proposed is called "Da Ming United Station", which is a three-part joint station system that integrates personnel movement, letter delivery and cargo transportation.
Wang Xijue had to sigh with emotion for his pragmatic methods and courage, as well as his broad-minded character. In order to effectively solve the problems of the court, he was really able to give up the interests that he had already obtained and almost had a monopoly without hesitation, and he was "innovating"
"I don't eat alone during the process. I really think about it for the sake of long-term peace and stability."
Mr. Wangge sighed quietly and murmured in a heavy tone: "I am not a fellow-teacher, I am not a fellow-teacher..."
Shen Shixing glanced at him and hesitated to speak. After a long time, he finally just sighed.
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ps: The nucleic acid test is negative and I will return to Changsha tomorrow.
