Although he was humble and did not dare to worry about his country, Gu Yanwu carefully investigated the situation of the Ming Dynasty's post administration, and was surprised to find that long before him, the Ming Dynasty had carried out three reforms on various post stations, but none of them were successful.
It is said that Emperor Taizu Gao established the Ming Dynasty. He was the emperor immediately and knew the importance of communication. On the twenty-second day after becoming emperor, he ordered the rectification and restoration of post stations across the country. The next year, he issued an edict to restore the Yuan Dynasty's
"Stations" were all renamed "posts", and efforts were made to build postal facilities in border areas.
In view of the chaos of the post stations in the Yuan Dynasty, he used strict laws to restrict certain privileges from the beginning. He clearly stipulated: "non-military and important affairs are not allowed to be given to post offices."
Persons who use postage horses and post ships, and other people are not allowed to "take post horses and post ships without permission", and violators will be severely punished.
Taizu was ruthless and ruthless, and officials did not dare to use the post station to fight the autumn wind. At that time, the cost of the post station was not high.
After the Zhengde and Jiajing reigns, the Ming Dynasty's officialdom collapsed and the postal system became increasingly corrupt. During the Zhengde period, Liu Yun, the eunuch in charge of rituals, was ordered to go to Tibet. At Chengdu Post, he was given 100 shi of grain and 100 taels of silver for vegetables; he prepared materials for Tibet.
, the amount of silver was as high as 130,000 taels. Emperor Zhengde went to the south of the Yangtze River for fun, and ordered the stations along the way to prepare beauties for the emperor's pleasure.
Effectively, anyone with some relationship with the system can write a letter of introduction to stay at the post station and use carriages and horses. Not only is it free, but you can even ask for travel expenses from the post station. In order to support the post station, which is increasingly expensive, officials have no choice but to ask the private sector.
More and more expenses are apportioned. How much is apportioned depends entirely on the personal conscience of the officials. Among them, there are Yicheng who are filial to their superiors, catering to errands, and can also accumulate thousands of wealth.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see this approach. If the post stations are not abolished, the farmers who will eventually be forced to live by the inns will rebel sooner or later.
Emperor Jiajing ordered reforms. His method was to reduce the number of post stations by 30% to 50%, and half of the money and food saved would be used for military expenses. After the imperial edict, officials gathered in the remaining post stations, eating and drinking as usual, and using their cars.
Horses increased their burden. The remaining post staff began to go on strike or simply abandoned their posts and ran away. The first reform failed.
During the Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng also began to take action on post administration. He believed that the reason why post administration became a burden on the court was that officials were too corrupt and used public tools for private use. Therefore, instead of cutting the number of post stations, he restricted the privileges of officials. He presided over the promulgation of strict regulations.
, punished dozens of illegal officials, including descendants of Confucius and relatives of the emperor. He directly listed the reform of post administration as an assessment content for officials in various places, and successfully reduced the cost of post administration nationwide by more than 30%, saving nearly one million taels of silver, effectively
Reducing the burden on the people.
The second reform was initially successful. However, after Zhang Juzheng died of illness, everything happened again and failed again.
In 1629, the nineteen-year-old Emperor Chongzhen once again started reforming the post office administration. He was eager for quick success and quick gains, and he did not have the patience of Zhang Juzheng. He only hoped to solve the problem immediately with a package of drastic measures.
There are two major differences between his methods and Zhang Juzheng:
First, Zhang Juzheng's reform of the post office was focused on reducing the burden on the people, and all the millions of taels saved were eliminated from apportionment. However, Emperor Chongzhen only cared about money, and he acquiesced to the officials' apportionment and requirements for the people.
A large part of it was handed over for military expenditures, but the burden on the people has not been reduced.
Second, the reforms were implemented too hastily and a "one-size-fits-all" order was issued to cut 60% of the country's post offices. Within a few months, 20,000 post workers were left unemployed, including an unemployed post worker from Yinchuan Post in Shaanxi Province: Li Zicheng.
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The third reform failed again.
Seeing the failure of the first three reforms, Gu Yanwu fell into deep thought: Why do public postal stations need to pay a large amount of money every year, and the related apportionments make the people miserable, while privately run postal stations are making huge profits?<
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In the Ming Dynasty, there was a private post office called the "Civil Information Bureau". As the name suggests, it was an agency that delivered letters to the people.
During the Yongle period, Ningbo helped merchants create the first "Civil Credit Bureau". Its business included sending letters, parcels, handling exchanges, etc., operating it for a fee, and making a lot of money. It later became popular in cities along the river, along the coast and canals, and even throughout the country.
With the development of the commodity economy in the Ming Dynasty, merchants needed business contacts and a joint organization to be responsible for the collection and distribution of goods and the exchange of funds. In addition, they who were doing business abroad also needed someone to send messages to their families to report that they were safe. This
This is the historical background for the emergence of the "Civil Affairs Bureau".
Gu Yanwu seemed to have found a way to reform the inn, and with a stroke of his pen, he wrote a letter to Emperor Guangwu. He was no longer an official in the court, so he could not "send letters"; he could only "write letters" in the way that a Confucian official admonished the monarch.
Speech.
Ordinarily, the emperor had no time to pay attention to the book written by a small postmaster. But who was Gu Yanwu? He was the focus of Emperor Guangwu's secret order, and the book he wrote was quickly spread to Emperor Guangwu's royal family.
Before the case.
"I heard that the common people are weak and cannot be defeated, and foolish but cannot be bullied. The Holy Lord walks alone in the deep palace. If he wins, the world will praise him. If he loses, the nine states will be in turmoil. Therefore, it is appropriate to cultivate benevolent government to control the people. If the minister is not talented, I will be the postmaster.
, He did not dare to be humble and forget to worry about the country, so he spoke to His Majesty with all his heart and soul.
The ancestors set up a post station to convey military information and issue political orders to all directions; and to win over powerful people and make them carry heavy burdens, draining their energy, wasting their years, and feeding them so that they would not dare to do wrong. It had a wonderful function.
However, to this day, post delivery is the most harmful thing to the people. The stations are densely packed, which consumes money and food, and only increases expenses. Youhua uses it to take care of Lijia; officials use it to ask for long orders; various yamen use it to seize horses; the state uses it to seize horses.
County officials use this to break their husbands and horses; Daofu and counties use it to misuse it; and they use it to care for people. The people who suffer the most are the villagers!
All kinds of apportionment and public dissatisfaction are boiling. If things go on like this, the country will not be a country. Every time I think about it, the public administration will suffer serious losses, the apportionment will become more and more prosperous, and the people will not make a living; the private administration will make huge profits, make money every day, and reduce the burden on the people.
Therefore, we offer three strategies: First, the expenses are from public funds, and it is strictly forbidden to use post to spread distribution, so as to reduce the burden on the people; second, each water horse post can only receive military missions and fly military information, and other officials who want to stay need to pay a fee.
Expenses; thirdly, each post only retains a few grooms and fast horses, and the rest of the staff are allowed to rent the house and courtyard of the post and operate it externally, and are responsible for their own profits and losses. If there is no one to rent it, they can sublet it to the local people's credit bureau.
I am a foolish person with little knowledge, and I am waiting for the judgment of the Holy One."
Zhu Hengjia read Gu Yanwu's book and fell into deep thought. The meaning of the book is as follows: the expenses will be paid out of the treasury and will no longer be apportioned to the private sector to reduce the burden on the people; other functions will be compressed and used only to communicate military information to save expenses;
Encourage post station staff to contract the post station to serve as an inn to reduce staff salaries, or rent it to the private Civil Information Bureau.
"Well, what Gu Yanwu said makes sense," Zhu Hengjia said to himself, and wrote a single word in the book: "Yes".
This chapter has been completed!