Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 196 Proposing to survey the land and implement the employment system (two in one)

Zhu Houzhao decided to issue an edict to seize the throne, and at the same time ordered Wang Qiong to rush to Beijing to reform the salt administration.

Wang Qiong naturally did not dare to disobey Zhu Houzhao's order and was very happy in his heart, thinking that the Emperor was still unwilling to obey the orders of the civil officials. In this way, he could say that the Emperor's orders must not be disobeyed and he no longer had to worry about being criticized.

However, when other civil servants in the court learned that Zhu Houzhao had issued an order to deprive her of her love, they were furious and began to discuss the matter.

The civil officials were naturally extremely disappointed and indignant at the fact that Emperor Zhu Houzhao and Wang Qiong did not resign and return to their hometown to observe mourning.

But the civil officials had now learned their lesson and knew that there would be no good end to rebelling against Emperor Zhu Houzhao, so they just started to scold Wang Qiong. Some said that Wang Qiong was unfilial, some said that Wang Qiong was clinging to power, and some said that Wang Qiong secretly encouraged the emperor to issue an order to deprive him of his love.

Of course, the real reason for these civil servants' disappointment was not that Wang Qiong did not return to his hometown to observe mourning, but that he was unable to stop the court from reforming the salt administration.

"Master Ye! I have given the money and followed your instructions to make Wang Qiong's father die, but why did Wang Qiong still enter the capital? Now the Ministry of Revenue has begun to order to stop paying silver to buy salt! It seems that we really have to pay grain to buy salt!"

Duan Guisheng, a student from Yangzhou, went to complain to Ye Zhi, the Minister of Taichang Temple. His family was a big salt merchant in Huaiyang. He had been staying in the capital since last year, intending to collude with officials to prevent the court from reforming the salt policy. However, he did not expect that these court officials had taken a lot of money and even had to kill people, but ultimately failed to stop the court from changing the salt policy.

Ye Zhi himself was also very depressed. His family was also a big salt merchant in Huaiyang, and thanks to the national policy changed by his father when he was the Minister of Revenue, they had now become one of the richest families in the world. He even knew how much loss his family would suffer if the court's salt policy was changed back to paying grain for salt.

"There's nothing I can do! Your Majesty wants to take away their love, and Wang Qiong clings to power. No one can do anything to them! Even if the censors impeach us, with the methods of the current emperor, the punishment will be confiscation of property and execution at the very least, or extermination of the entire family at the worst! We have no choice but to accept this matter now," Ye Zhi could only say this. However, he also accepted a lot of money from these salt merchants. He thought that even if the court's reform of the salt policy caused damage to his family, he would not suffer any losses.

"But isn't all this money wasted?" Duan Guisheng couldn't help but stamp his feet.

"Nothing is wasted. The ministers in the court have received a lot of tribute from us salt merchants over the years. Even if they cannot stop Your Majesty from reforming the salt policy now, they will find a way to change the current salt policy back in the future for the sake of this long-term tribute. No one can live forever, and the same is true for emperors. Let's wait until the new emperor ascends the throne in the future. Everything must be considered carefully!"

Ye Zhi said something meaningful.

Duan Guisheng was shocked when he heard this, and asked in fear, "Master Ye, do you mean?"

Duan Guisheng did not say the word "regicide" aloud, but only whispered: "This is the crime of ten clans!"

Ye Zhi's face became serious: "I didn't say I would do such a treasonous thing! Besides, the palace is now under strict control, and your majesty's food and drink are all strictly controlled. How dare I do such a thing!"

Duan Guisheng heaved a sigh of relief after hearing Ye Zhi say this.

……

After Wang Qiong arrived in Beijing, he immediately submitted a memorial to reform the salt administration, which Zhu Houzhao naturally approved immediately.

Therefore, starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, the Ming Dynasty's Salt Administration restored the system of "paying grain and obtaining salt". However, it was still different from the previous system of "paying grain and obtaining salt".

First, the emperor issued an edict strictly prohibiting the powerful from asking for salt permits and granted the Ministry of Revenue the right to reject requests for salt permits from future kings and even powerful people in order to avoid disrupting the salt policy.

Secondly, the government increased the price of salt collected from salt households to increase their income and encourage innovation in salt-making technology.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to encourage merchants to recruit people to cultivate land on the border, and adopted a contract system to levy taxes on the people's land and exempt border residents from corvée labor.

Merchants all over the world felt very uncomfortable when they heard about this, but for the sake of the profits of the salt industry, they had no choice but to start transporting grain to the border and at the same time recruit refugees to cultivate land in border towns.

Although the imperial court reduced its annual salt tax revenue by more than one million taels, it reduced its military food expenditure by millions of taels. According to reports from the governors of various border towns, the number of soldiers and civilians in the border towns began to increase starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, and the Hetao area was no longer uninhabited. Towns and villages appeared one after another.

Moreover, the imperial treasury revenue did not actually decrease. Since the fourth year of Zhengde, tens of thousands of prisoners of war and criminals in Yulin City have produced nearly 10,000 taels of gold and more than 100,000 taels of silver, as well as countless iron and copper mines for the Yulin mines. Among them, the gold and silver were directly escorted to Beijing and became part of the imperial treasury revenue, while the iron and copper mines were sold by Yulin Mining itself.

The income tax paid to the central court alone amounted to more than 60,000 taels, and together with other taxes, the total was no less than 100,000 taels.

In other words, the development of Yulin City alone has increased the court's income by more than 300,000 taels.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think that if ten or even a hundred Yulin cities were built, the income of the Ming Dynasty treasury would probably increase by three million or even thirty million taels, and there would be sufficient funds to develop education at that time.

But although the ideal is very good, the reality is very bleak. The cost of building another Yulin City is not low. First, immigration is needed. Secondly, food must be supplied in the early stage, and basically it will take at least a few years before taxes can be generated.

The reason why Yulin City was able to quickly supply the imperial court with sufficient taxes and minerals was because a large number of war criminals captured from the little prince's tribe provided Yulin City with sufficient labor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had to admit that the Ming Dynasty still had a long way to go if it wanted to achieve the primitive accumulation of capital. At least for now, it had to develop trade first, not only border trade, but also maritime trade.

The first is border trade. The Tatars are now divided into pieces and naturally pose no threat to the Ming Dynasty. In Zhu Houzhao's view, this is undoubtedly the best time to trade with them. He can control the Tatar tribes through economic trade and even help the leaders of the Tatar tribes maintain their ruling position within their own tribes.

Zhu Houzhao issued an edict allowing the Tatar tribes to conduct border trade with the Ming Dynasty, that is, opening up border trade, but it required unified taxation by the court, and one had to hold entry and exit certificates from the Ming Dynasty's Maritime Customs to enter the border towns to trade, and smuggling was prohibited.

However, trade requires certain tariffs, which are collected uniformly by the newly established Ming Maritime Customs. Taxes must be paid when receiving the certificates. Only after paying the taxes can one obtain the qualifications to enter the country for trade.

The Maritime Customs Office was not unfamiliar to the people of the Ming Dynasty, but they were surprised why it was set up in a border town, because according to the understanding of people of that era, the Maritime Customs Office was generally set up along the coast.

Zhu Houzhao knew that people of that era did not know about customs, so he could understand their surprise. In later generations, customs were not only set up at sea.

To be precise, the newly established Maritime Customs Office in the Ming Dynasty is responsible for managing entry and exit trade, just like the customs in later generations. However, the main trade in this world is generally maritime trade, so it is literally more related to the sea.

After Zhu Houzhao's repeated explanations, officials from the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue basically understood what Zhu Houzhao meant by the Maritime Customs, and realized that the newly established Maritime Customs was not a simple institution, and the financial revenue it managed might be no less than that of the Salt Administration.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao knew that once border trade was opened, the smuggling activities of merchants would be most likely to affect border trade income and border town management security.

From an economic point of view, smuggling affects national income, and will make the border trade maintained by the empire with a strong national defense force not beneficial to the country. This is why the court repeatedly banned border trade. After all, if smuggling is not banned, border trade will be detrimental to military defense. From a political and military point of view, smuggling is not conducive to the Ming Dynasty's economic control of the various ethnic tribes outside the border towns. The Great Wall, which cost countless real money to build, was not only to resist foreign enemies, but more importantly, to fix the regular places for border trade at a few points for the court's control.

If smuggling activities are rampant, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty will lose this function, and the money used to build the Great Wall will be wasted.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao directly ordered the governors and provincial governments in the border towns to draw border troops to establish the Maritime Customs Office, which was under the jurisdiction of the Anti-Smuggling Security Bureau, and to draw border troops to become anti-smuggling inspectors, who were specifically responsible for combating smuggling.

In the current Ming Dynasty, no one dares to disobey Zhu Houzhao.

Therefore, all of Zhu Houzhao's imperial edicts were carried out.

Although cracking down on smuggling would affect the interests of the powerful, the failure of King Anhua's rebellion also made the powerful once again realize how inappropriate it was to rebel at this time.

But speaking of rebellion, what Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that because of the implementation of the Kaocheng Law, local governments had to increase their tax collection efforts, which also aroused civil unrest in some places.

Civil uprisings first broke out in southern Jiangxi and northern Sichuan, which led some censors to suggest that the court abolish the system of performing official duties.

"Your Majesty! The performance evaluation system is too harsh. It only seeks results without asking why, which makes officials lose their love for the people. If it is not abolished, the tax collection will be even heavier. Today, southern Jiangxi and northern Sichuan are rebelling, and there is no guarantee that other places will not rebel in the future! Therefore, I ask Your Majesty to abolish the performance evaluation system to relieve the pressure on officials and the people, and rule by doing nothing!"

Xie Ne, an official of the Ministry of Personnel, wrote this in his memorial.

"The performance evaluation system must not be abolished! The local civil unrest was not caused by the performance evaluation system. The root cause was the harm done by the clerks and the students and local officials. They charged the landless people with taxes that should have been paid, and made the landed people become landless people in the fish scale book. As a result, the landless people had to pay more taxes, while the landed people escaped taxes! Moreover, because of the contributions, a large amount of tax losses were caused!"

"Therefore, I suggest that starting from the sixth year of Zhengde, local governments should be ordered to survey the land, with the governor in charge and the inspectors supervising. At the same time, an imperial decree should be issued to strictly prohibit the offering of slaves and prohibit the gentry from owning slaves!"

Now there was no need for Zhu Houzhao to stand up and oppose it himself, as the cabinet chief minister Jiao Fang, a civil servant with bureaucratic capitalist colors, took the initiative to raise objections.

As a shareholder of the Royal Bank, Jiao Fang, who had made a fortune by taking advantage of the Royal Bank's dividends and conducting business activities at the beginning of Yulin City by taking advantage of political convenience, now had the idea of ​​surveying the land.

He knew that if he wanted the Ministry of Revenue to repay the Royal Bank's loan and for himself, the Royal Bank's shareholders, to earn dividends, the Ministry of Revenue had to continue to increase the treasury revenue, and if the treasury revenue was to be increased, it mainly depended on agricultural income.

Surveying land is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to increase treasury revenue, besides increasing commercial taxes, so Jiao Fang took this opportunity to bring it up.

At the same time, Jiao Fang also proposed a ban on offering sacrifices and keeping slaves.

Just like proposing to survey the land, it was also to maintain a stable income for the Ming court and to prevent a large number of people from being annexed by the gentry and powerful, so that the court would have no soldiers to recruit and no civilians to use.

Capitalists like Jiao Fang who were transformed by Zhu Houzhao also avoided a lack of available labor. After all, his Jiao family already had a large number of industries outside the Great Wall and needed to employ a large number of migrant workers. Driving ordinary people out of the gentry's manors would undoubtedly be beneficial to him and the court.

"I agree with what Jiao Qing said!"

Zhu Houzhao was also familiar with land surveying. He knew that Zhang Juzheng had conducted a land survey during the Wanli period in history. Although it did not take long, it provided Wanli with enough financial resources to support the three major expeditions.

It can be seen that land surveying could increase a lot of income for the empire, but it was also a heavy blow to the gentry group. Otherwise, Zhang Juzheng would not have been retaliated so harshly by the civil servants, and his entire family would not have been starved to death by a certain assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice who was responsible for the confiscation of their property.

At this time, Jiao Fang suddenly proposed to survey the land. Although he might not be as selfless as Zhang Juzheng, he did have a public heart. After all, this was very offensive.

Fortunately, unlike Zhang Juzheng in history, who did not get the support of imperial power but only used it, Jiao Fang now has the support of his own emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believed that this land survey would be more thorough than the one conducted by Zhang Juzheng in history. Zhu Houzhao also thought it would be best to institutionalize it and conduct a survey every few years so that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty could know the true situation of land distribution in the Ming Dynasty at any time.

Regarding the civil unrest and riots, although the civil officials used this to criticize the performance evaluation system, saying that the performance evaluation system forced benevolent officials to become cruel officials, which led to the civil unrest, Zhu Houzhao would not be fooled and directly said:

"The performance evaluation system is a good policy to demote officials who are lazy in their duties. How can we abandon it so easily? The agricultural tax collection rate of the Ming Dynasty is only 30 to 1, and it is always exempted in years of disaster. The civil unrest at this time is not because the performance evaluation system has increased the burden on the people, but because of the local government's additional fire consumption tax and the corruption of the clerks!"

When the civil servants saw that they could not fool Emperor Zhu Houzhao easily, and even made the emperor turn his attention to the fire consumption, they suddenly became speechless and dared not say anything.

Because all civil servants in Beijing, regardless of their rank, relied on the tribute silver from local officials to maintain their luxurious life, and the tribute silver from local officials did not come from the fire consumption silver levied by local officials. If Emperor Zhu Houzhao was really forced into a corner and banned the levy of fire consumption silver or made it public, the interests of all civil servants would suffer.

Therefore, the civil servants no longer dared to mention the abolition of the examination system.

Of course, the civil officials did not want the civil unrest to continue. As rulers, they, like the emperor, hoped that the people would be obedient subjects who could be exploited at will. Therefore, the civil officials also began to think honestly about how to quell the civil unrest.

Civil servants do have experience in this regard.

Cao Yuan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, first suggested that taxes should be exempted for the people in the areas affected by the civil unrest to prevent them from joining the bandits due to the heavy burden of taxes, so that the bandits would have no foundation to grow stronger. At the same time, a strategy of both suppression and appeasement should be implemented. Most of the people who caused trouble and rebelled did so because they could not survive. Appeasing them would naturally eliminate their rebellious intentions. At the same time, the bandit leaders should be sentenced to death to serve as a warning to others.

Zhu Houzhao also agreed with his strategy, and ordered Cao Yuan to concurrently serve as the Left Vice-Chief Censor and Governor of southern Jiangxi to quell the rebellion. Xiao Xuan, the Censor-in-Chief, who also proposed the policy of relieving the people from distress, cracking down on corruption, and focusing on comfort, was also appointed by Zhu Houzhao as the Left Vice-Chief Censor and Governor of Sichuan to quell the rebellion. At the same time, he issued an edict to exempt the two places from taxes for three years.

By the end of the sixth year of Zhengde, both rebellions were put down.

Although the rebellion was easily put down, Zhu Houzhao knew that if the problem of officials forcing the people to rebel was not fundamentally resolved, it would be impossible to avoid peasant uprisings.

To fundamentally solve this problem, we must first crack down on the phenomenon that clerks and local gentry control the local areas, resulting in unreasonable tax distribution.

Therefore, the policy of surveying land is imperative and must be normalized every few years. Although it is inevitable that land will gradually be concentrated in the hands of a few people, it can also prevent the people from having to pay taxes after losing their land, or even from being manipulated by clerks and local gentry and having to pay heavy taxes and rebelling.

Therefore, at the court meeting in March of the sixth year of Zhengde, the Minister of Revenue Wang Qiong, under the advice of the Chief Minister of the Cabinet Jiao Fang, formally proposed to implement the policy of land survey in March of the sixth year of Zhengde, and suggested that the court should survey the land every five years and establish it as a system. Future dynasties must follow this policy.

At the same time, Yang Yiqing, who succeeded as the Minister of Rites, was advised by the Chief Minister of the Cabinet Jiao Fang to abide by the Constitution and ancestral laws to protect the basic human rights of the people of the Ming Dynasty. He also criticized this as a bad policy of the previous Yuan Dynasty, which must be changed. He suggested that wealthy families be prohibited from keeping slaves, and that common people be prohibited from selling themselves into slavery. Those who have been in wealthy families for many years or have already sold themselves should change the contract from selling themselves to employment, and clearly specify the wages and term!
(End of this chapter)