Chapter 288 Economy and Party Struggle (29) Spending money is very important
One hundred thousand iron cavalry, three million taels - provided that only a lance was replaced.
This does not include horses, equipment, sabers, shirts, kettles and other personal equipment, or even ammunition. Not to mention the barracks, cooking utensils, food, vegetables and meat, bedding, marching tents and other supplies needed by this army daily, as well as
Crucially, at least several very large horse farms are needed to maintain this cavalry.
If all these are taken into account, this first-class cavalry of 100,000 people will cost at least tens of millions of taels of Ming silver. Of course, this money does not need to be paid out at once, after all, a lot of money has already been spent before.
The economic foundation determines the strength of an army to a large extent, because economic conditions are rigid conditions and can often be regarded as the lower limit guarantee of the army's combat effectiveness. This does not mean organizational structure, discipline, morale, integrity, and tactical literacy.
The other aspects are not important, but these latter are soft conditions and are used to increase the upper limit rather than guarantee the lower limit.
There is a joke in later generations: "The Ming army is not satisfied with its pay, but it is invincible if it is fully paid." Does it make sense? Yes, it is just not comprehensive.
Why do people in later generations like to joke that "the Ming army is not satisfied with its pay, but is invincible if it is fully paid"? Because facts have proven that the Ming army's combat effectiveness immediately soared after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. Those who did not dare to fight before now dare to fight; they could not be defeated at all before.
, now it collapsed immediately. So much so that after this ridicule, two more sentences were added: "Where is the full pay, the Eight Banners of the Foreign Han Dynasty are closed."
This is embarrassing. You have billions of people in the prosperous Central Plains, but you can't afford full wages. However, this Taqing, which only has a small area of guanli, can afford full wages. In such a situation,
Who will perish if he perishes?
Therefore, although there are very few indirect causes of Xiao Ming's death, there is no doubt that the direct cause of death lies in finance, especially military finance.
Low pragmatism The main idea of previous reforms was to increase revenue, not to increase fiscal revenue. When it came to increasing expenditure and reducing expenditure, basically only two things were done: opening vassal bans and modifying inns.
The latter must be described one by one, but the former cannot be explained in detail. Why are only those two measures implemented in the low-pragmatic cost-cutting measures? Let’s talk about the latter one first, and it is not to open a vassal ban. Isn’t that matter too small in nature?
Under real pressure, as long as the emperor is willing to do it, the court can do it at any time, and it will face less resistance.
As for now, all I have to do is convince the emperor to spend that money. That would be difficult for me, Gao Yuanfu.
The previous development is not described in the following article, so it is just a table. In short, the final result is not that the clan has millions of dollars and spends a lot of money, but the court has become more and more wealthy, and Xiao Ming's financial expenses are wasted in vain.
Regarding the land issue, what was often criticized in previous lives was "over-concentration of land." Instead, it was said that as long as the land is concentrated, it will be over. A certain degree of concentration cannot increase the people's ability to resist risks. The key lies in the specificity of that concentration.
To what extent, and in which specific areas is the concentration concentrated—the loess lowlands of northern Shaanxi and the land of plenty in Huguang? Can this be generalized?
To a certain extent, that is still "reform is thorough", because even though Gao Pragmatic sent many mathematics graduates from the Jinghua Craftsman School as reviewers for the land auctions, he also asked Jinghua Bank to provide land buyers with purchasing services.
Land loans can also ensure that the land is sold to special people.
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Therefore, although I had to change my father's "ancestral system" and change the princes from various places from real princes to virtual princes, in order to save face, I had to compensate financially and create
He has established a vassal pig-raising system that is unique to Xiao Ming—except for creating people, he is allowed to do everything, but I promise: I will give him enough money.
Of course, there are still very few detailed rules, such as land buyers based on household size, having to purchase more than 100 acres of land at a time, etc. Anyway, although Low Pragmatic hopes to ensure the interests of the people as much as possible, in the end it will be difficult to truly benefit the poor.
Or if I have to say it, it is actually just distributing part of the land that was too concentrated outside the hands of top landowners to medium and large landowners.
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However, that system cannot be changed. As long as the current emperor dares to slap the "gentleman's agreement" between Chengzu and the clan in reality, it will be changed. What can the clan do? It is not possible, because we
Having been raised as a pig for two hundred years, now he has both military power and ability, and even lacks the courage to do anything rebellious.
What should we do? Small-scale infrastructure construction is naturally the most difficult solution for Gao Pragmatic to think of. However, in the later period, Jinghua Infrastructure carried out sewerage projects and I, Gao Yuanfu, was impeached. Now I have to rush first.
Does that count as an urgent solution to the land conflict? Yes, but there is no limit to it. Does it help the extremely poor? No, because the oppression of tenant farmers by big landowners is relatively heavy.
In essence, it is a social phenomenon that can only be explained rationally, and it does not even possess some of the characteristics of a "free economy." In this case, being pragmatic is of course excluding the expansion of the "big landowners" group. It is definitely weakening the small landowners.
It is even worse to expand the group of large landowners on the basis of other factors, because it will indeed resolve social conflicts.
But the interesting thing is that the post station is a contract system, and providing lower-end food and accommodation is part of the way for the inn management to make money. Therefore, officials who only come to the inn are willing to spend their own money to improve the standard of food and accommodation. As for the inn,
If you ask for it, you will get it, and you will even take the initiative to sell it.
More importantly, the small amounts of land and other means of production that the clan kings had seized through various means in the early days were not forcefully taken back. They only conducted an inventory and confiscated part of them, and then used them relatively cheaply.
The price is put into the private market to resolve land conflicts.
Yes, as long as the officials spend money from the Ministry of Revenue, I will be happy to see the results - lowering social consumption is a bad thing that I want. I only advocate frugality for the court, but from
It encourages the rich to be frugal.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Everyone is trying their best to tighten their belts and live a life. This is not consumption but insufficient, and then the production end will suffer. Consumption that is insufficient will lead to overproduction, and overproduction will
This led to a backlog of products, which then led to a decrease in profits in the production department and ultimately a reduction in production. At this time, practitioners in the production department were also affected and their incomes dropped, which further led to even more insufficient consumption... and then fell into a death spiral, and the economic crisis broke out.
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Did Xiao Ming notice changes in prices in the later period? In essence, it was mainly due to a drop in prices caused by a small inflow of precious metals. Although that change was a bad thing in the later period, because Xiao Ming’s original money supply was sufficient.
, in fact, it is in a state of deflation, but after low-pragmatic teenagers promoted maritime trade, the supply of precious metal money is not sufficient now, so we have to stop considering the issue of inflation.
This is the only way to understand it: before the reform, the management of the post stations was worse than the cadres of the business department. Each post station was based on a certain "contracting system" and was responsible for its own profits and losses. The court used "contracting rights" in exchange for us to undertake some of the tasks required by the court, such as the military
Report on horses in transit, boat transfers, food and lodging for officials along the way, etc.
Then let Gao Pragmatic know that although big landowners are also landlords, they are essentially tenants and live on the "surplus labor value" of the long-term workers. However, the relationship with the tenants and long-term workers is not as life-and-death as imagined. Rarely
On the contrary, things were quite harmonious, and it was a win-win situation to a certain extent.
What's more, although the lower-level clan members live a happy life, the upper-level clan members are in extremely miserable condition - the imperial court only raises money, the clan's regular salary is delayed again and again, and we are allowed to fend for ourselves and can only wait to starve to death. So much so.
A clan member commits a crime deliberately and tries to go to Fengyang clan prison to have a stable meal. Is that still miserable?
Therefore, allowing the imperial court to expand arms procurement has become something that must be promoted by Low Pragmatism.
The defense of the Central Committee was actually bankrupt before the Battle of Jingnan. It was too late to prevent him. How can we still expect him to defend the Central Committee? But the emperor wants face, especially an emperor with sufficient legitimacy like Zhu Di. That face is even more important.
You must hold on tight.
Why did ancient uprisings rarely occur in the north? The following is not one of the important reasons. In the final analysis, social productivity determines everything, including the form of social organization.
Hundreds of acres of land are concentrated in the Huguang Plain, and it cannot manage the smooth lives of dozens of families. One of them is a landlord, and the rest are tenants and long-term workers. When some disasters occur, it is urgent. The landlords have little or no surplus food, so they use it to help the small family.
After the disaster year has passed, the days ahead are still long. Even the landlords can organize a high-intensity disaster relief effort. This is a "time-tested social system."
Of course, the rationale and pragmatism will be clearly stated to the emperor immediately. Anyway, as long as the matter reaches this point, if the emperor and the court officials want to slow down, then they can just propose another expansion goal - anyway, the goal has already been set: to the west
These are the two basins.
In short, the essence of the economic thing is not to add water when there is less water, but to add water when there is less water. Therefore, now that we want to end the worry about inflation, we must let the court spend less money, and there is no other key:
Although the money needs to be spent, at worst it will flow into the private market.
The facts are before our eyes. It is said that the proportion of ordinary people who dared to borrow money from banks to buy land was too high. Therefore, a small amount of land was still bought by big landowners and rich farmers from all over the country - why big landowners? Because there were no regulations at that time.
If all the relatives within the seven servers of the family together own more than 8,000 acres of land, they must purchase the "legally auctioned land". Violators will be fined the land and all purchase fees.
But you have to forget that I did not deliberately eliminate a small number of clan lords. Therefore, that reform must have been evaluated by predecessors as "the reform is not thorough" - it still costs one hundred yuan per year under the clan's regular salary.
Less than ten thousand taels of silver.
In addition to opening vassal bans, another low-pragmatic cost-saving policy is the reform of post stations. The later part of that reform is vague enough. In essence, it is not a market-oriented reform on the premise of retaining certain "government-run" characteristics. That point is for
For someone who is a grassroots cadre, what is new and pragmatic? For small principles and ideas, just copy the homework.
Where is the resistance to opening the vassal ban? It lies in Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral precepts and the Confucian idea of "kissing relatives". It is Zhu Yuanzhang's national policy to enfeoff vassal kings, and the two main reasons for Zhu Yuanzhang's doing so are: first, to protect the central government by kinship with the vassal;
Seven, descendants bloom and spread their leaves.
Of course, the impact of the Fed's large-denomination banknotes has not yet been clarified outside. After all, banknotes may be issued only by depositing one tael of silver in the bank. If it is to issue less, otherwise the industry will not exist.
It’s valuable.
Why would a pragmatic person do that? Do I know the real situation at the bottom of society? Yes, just because I know that the small landlord class often does not have an official or privileged background. In fact, the dependence of tenant farmers on us is very stable, often
We are oppressing them to death, but the tenants and long-term workers have no way to do it, because confrontation is a weakening of power.
On the one hand, in arms procurement, the court spends money and the military-industrial complex makes money. The money flows from the military-industrial system to the private sector relatively quickly, which is in line with the current needs of low-level finance.
Therefore, the low-level affairs forces promoted the reform of the clan, using the excuse that the imperial court needed to save money for the Northern Expedition to the remaining Yuan Dynasty, and successfully promoted the establishment of feudal vassals and the reform of the system. In the end, this huge financial waste was cut off, which was considered a small savings.
By the way, for this reason, Low Pragmatic has further tightened the standards for food and accommodation for officials using the inn. Users who exceed the standard will be included in the evaluation system of the examination method - if they want to be promoted or at most dismissed, the worst they will do is to
The food and accommodation at the inn are beyond the standard.
The big landowners are like this. It is difficult for us to weaken the tenant farmers, because the tenant farmers cannot just leave. So the big landowners can only give less concessions to the tenant farmers to ensure that no one cultivates their own land, especially for these technologies.
, tenants with excellent labor force, including long-term workers, etc.
On the other hand, the imperial court spent such a small amount of money to go out and reduce the strength of the army, but if the emperor and court officials would feel that you spent such a small amount of money, you must only let us guard the border. Is this right?
Lost money? Yes, you have to make the money well spent.
The descendants of low-pragmatic people heard their ancestors talk about the true history after liberation when they were young. They did not mention that (large) landowners had to give out meat and cloth to the tenant farmers during the holidays. If
However, people will make comparisons. Xiaofang, a certain family (landowner) in Linxiang and Linxian County, let's go to our house to do work next year.
How can we make it worth the money? Of course, "If your neighbor collects grain, you should collect guns, but your neighbor is not your granary." So how can we make back the full amount of income-generating projects with so little military spending?
Not yet, I definitely need to call someone to do something temporarily or unexpectedly. The (big) landowner even has to go to the door to invite someone in person, and he has to be polite. After the work is done, he has to leave someone to have a meal outside the home, or even give him a meal.
Order a big gift (a few kilograms of rice, a few taels of meat, etc.). Otherwise, you have to worry about offending others, and if they do something bad next year, they will do it to their family.
But it is the same in the Loess Lowland. A few hundred acres of land may not produce much, and it is wrong to be able to support more than a dozen families. Therefore, our ability to resist risks is also very poor.
The nomads also went up and killed them and swept them away. After that, the small family went bankrupt and fled. The local social system collapsed, and by the way, a wave of "society is a stabilizing factor" was created.
