There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 374 "Prosperity" of Jiangnan

Upon closer examination, it turns out that the cause was actually planted by the Han people themselves.

Because the Han dynasty occupied the granaries of Huguang, the puppet Qing dynasty lacked food and was forced to convert some cotton fields in Jiangnan into farmland.

After cotton fields were converted into farmland, in order to maintain the balance of local fiscal revenue and expenditure, and also because it was a source of corruption and exploitation by local officials, high cotton field taxes were still levied on farmland.

As time went on, the people were exploited to the point where they could no longer survive, and large areas of farmland in Jiangnan began to be abandoned.

Even the wealthy landowners and gentry who owned and annexed land allowed the common people to abandon their land, leaving only their servants and core tenants to cultivate the remaining fields intensively.

As for the taxes payable on land that has already been abandoned, do we still need to pay taxes on it?
Have you ever heard of "flying spray" or "mysterious message"?
Here's a little-known fact: the bald man was once thrown a jab at by a landlord, and when he couldn't stand it and tried to reason with him, he was falsely accused and arrested.

After finally managing to earn some money, he resolved to make a name for himself and crush those who had bullied him.

Large areas of cotton fields in the Jiangnan region were abandoned. In order to plug the revenue gap, local officials continued to impose even more levies and taxes, and the remaining cotton fields continued to be abandoned.

In the end, when there was no land left to sell, grain prices in Jiangnan soared higher and higher along with the abandoned land, reaching a level that even the landlords found unacceptable.

The Jiaqing Emperor's decision not to continue establishing the position of Governor-General of Liangjiang was a political concession aimed at stabilizing the gentry in Jiangnan. However, the issue of grain transport only fueled the gentry's growing dissatisfaction with the puppet Qing dynasty.

With the Governor-General of Liangjiang no longer overseeing them, the Jiangnan gentry, as local strongmen, gained more power, which ironically exacerbated the Qing dynasty's grain shortage.

Many gentry members were frantically spending money to evade taxes, and local officials dared not and could not manage it, fearing that they would drive these wealthy gentry members to rebellion.

It's not so scary for the gentry of Jiangnan to rebel; their fighting ability is very low. But if there's a big man flanking them, that's terrifying.

Before the Han army invaded Jiangnan, the situation in Jiangnan was in this vicious cycle.

The more the Qing dynasty tried to stabilize the situation, the less stable it became.

The proliferation of beggars and vagrants in Nanjing was a microcosm of the power struggle between the gentry of Jiangnan and the puppet Qing court.

Nie Yu asked, "Does Lin Qing have any thoughts?"

Lin Wenchang said, "Your Majesty, there are only two points to solve these problems:

First, divide the land and reclaim wasteland.

Second, revise the commercial law.

Lin Wenchang cleared his throat and continued, "Let's talk about land redistribution and reclamation first. Simply redistributing land is definitely not enough, as there is only so much land in Jiangnan."

“In the early Ming Dynasty, Huguang had not yet been developed, so it was not that when Huguang was prosperous, the whole country was prosperous, but that when Suzhou and Hangzhou were prosperous, the whole country was prosperous. But now it is different. Since Huguang has been developed and the country’s population growth has recovered, the land in Jiangnan can no longer support the people of the whole country.”

“Even if our Great Han Dynasty were to distribute all the land now, there would still be a large surplus of people. They would not be able to get land and would have to stay in the city, continuing to be beggars or vagrants, with no other way to make a living.”

The reason why they couldn't work and earn money was also a legacy of the Qing dynasty.

In order to balance local power and facilitate its own control and management, the puppet Qing dynasty inherited the Ming dynasty's high-pressure and heavy taxation policy on the Jiangnan region, and even went so far as to impose it on Jiangnan.

By seizing vast amounts of wealth from Jiangnan, they supported the Eight Banners nobles of the puppet Qing dynasty and stabilized the border regions under their control.

Nie Yu couldn't help but laugh whenever these frontier regions were mentioned.

He also remembered that some marketing accounts in later generations once boasted that the pseudo-Qing had 100% control over the country, but in reality, apart from the Han territories inherited from the former Ming Dynasty, which were under basic control, the remaining border provinces were all under indirect rule.

In the vast Tibetan region, the Qing dynasty's garrison numbered only about a thousand men, and the officials were few and far between, including the Qing Resident Minister.

You call this actual control?

And Xinjiang is even more outrageous. Xinjiang, which was under the actual control of the puppet Qing dynasty, was not truly developed until the late Qing dynasty.

How was it developed?
Because Lin Zexu was exiled to Xinjiang by the Qing government, he had nothing to do, so he helped develop and build water conservancy projects in Xinjiang. There is still a memorial site called "Lin Gong Well" there.

Outer Mongolia and the three northeastern provinces are even more in a different situation. The former was exploited by the puppet Qing dynasty to the point of breaking away, and they hated the puppet Qing to the core, extending that hatred to the entire nation at the time. The three northeastern provinces were the puppet Qing's homeland, and it was only in the late Qing dynasty, when there was no other way, that they were developed, and then they were sold out by the Qing's Japanese spies.

Good heavens, not only did they betray their country, but they betrayed their own hometown.

That's truly an outrageous display of filial piety!
After the establishment of the puppet Qing dynasty, in order to suppress the Jiangnan region, control the border areas, and maintain the Eight Banners—a bloodsucking group even larger and more bloated than the Ming dynasty's imperial family—it adopted a high-pressure rule over Jiangnan and seized all the national wealth and surplus.

To what extent did the pseudo-Qing dynasty exert its suppression?

The Qing dynasty even set up multiple weaving bureaus in Jiangnan, with strict regulations on how much raw silk each household could produce and how many textile machines they could own. They then extracted all the profits they could from commercial output, making it difficult for merchants to further expand production or build factories.

In this way, the industry and commerce in Jiangnan will always remain in a state where they cannot expand, yet cannot truly collapse.

This is why, despite the prosperity of the Jiangnan region under the pseudo-Qing dynasty, "capitalist sprouts" never emerged.

The only Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou were nothing more than a front for Emperor Qianlong, a tool for him to monopolize wealth.

The industry and commerce in the Jiangnan region have always been in a state of contraction, and the excessive influx of people into the cities has made it difficult to transform them into the labor force needed for industrial and commercial development.

Since they cannot return to the farmland, they can only become beggars and vagrants, further disrupting the relations of production.

It was a real headache; Nie Yu was completely exasperated after hearing it!
The Industrial Revolution in Britain followed a similar process: first, rapid land consolidation and acquisition in local areas to turn the land into factories, forcing displaced farmers to move to cities, providing a sufficient labor force for urbanization, and then driving the development of the Industrial Revolution.

Now, the big man from the pseudo-Qing gang has completed the first half, but only half of it, leaving a mess for him to clean up.

Nie Yu understood and finally took it seriously, asking, "Is this what you meant by revising the Commercial Law?"

“Yes,” Lin Wenchang nodded and said, “The first step is to redistribute the land in Jiangnan, so that the abandoned land can be cultivated again. We also need to build water conservancy projects and encourage agriculture and sericulture. Jiangnan has many plains and fertile soil. As long as the water conservancy is maintained and the land can be cultivated regularly, there should not be a shortage of land after the land is redistributed.”

After stating the first point, Lin Wenchang did not continue and bowed as he withdrew.

Wu Taining, the Minister of Commerce who had been waiting for a long time, stepped forward at the opportune moment and said, "Now that the first step has been completed, the next step is to revise the Commercial Law."

"The population of Jiangnan has increased several times compared to decades ago. What Minister Lin just said about not having a shortage of land is only based on the premise that the urban population and the rural population are in balance. If a large number of urban residents return to their hometowns to redistribute land, then there will definitely still not be enough land to go around, and we will have to continue to cultivate arable land. But this is not practical. There is always a limit to the cultivation of arable land. The Jiangnan Plain is not inexhaustible."

"Therefore, Your Majesty needs to revise the Commercial Law. Although the original Commercial Law was more lenient than that of the Qing Dynasty, it was still not enough for the development of industry and commerce, or even for the 'Industrial Revolution' that Your Majesty desired. Moreover, the first step in leniency is for Your Majesty to open the seas immediately. The important matter of opening the seas can no longer be delayed."

Wu Taining's idea was clear: to reform commercial law to stimulate the stagnant private industry and commerce and allow it to flourish again.

The development of industry and commerce will lead to the establishment of factories by the private sector. The emergence of factories will absorb unemployed vagrants and beggars, turning them into factory labor.

It can solve the instability of urban beggars and vagrants without depleting the country's finances, and it can also promote the development of industry and commerce, creating more fiscal revenue and jobs for the country.

A brilliant way to kill three birds with one stone!
Wu Taining can now understand why the King of Han sent them books, asking them to study the economics of those countries.

Previously, I thought it was all just theoretical talk, and it truly was. But compared to the current era of extremely backward industry and commerce, the economics books that Nie Yu presented were simply classic textbooks for practical application.

Despite not spending a single penny, the problems in Jiangnan were solved, and the national treasury's revenue was increased.

After listening, Nie Yu said seriously, "In that case, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Revenue should submit a set of regulations as soon as possible, and I will then issue an edict to implement policies accordingly!"

"The minister obeys the order."

The two bowed in unison and accepted the order.

Wu Taining then asked, "Your Majesty, what about the opening of the sea..."

Nie Yu smiled and said, "I already have a plan for the important matter of opening up the seas. The Ministry of Commerce will draft a proposal first and see which port to open the seas in first."

Upon hearing the word "first," Wu Taining knew that everything was settled; the king wasn't just going through the motions, but was genuinely preparing for a full-scale opening of the seas.

(End of this chapter)