Ancient China created a great farming civilization, which shows that all dynasties have established their country based on agriculture. But to ask who the most miserable people is, the answer twenty years ago is still 100% "farmers". In the Song Dynasty, farmers accounted for the vast majority of the country's population, so land tax became an important source of finance and taxation for the country.
The land tax collection in the Song Dynasty was based on land acres. The land tax was divided into several levels according to the land quality, and the tax amount per acre was determined according to the level. The two tax laws were still followed, and the summer tax was paid twice in summer and autumn. The summer tax was levied on June 1st, and the tax amount was calculated in money. The autumn tax was levied on October 1st, and it was calculated in rice. In the early Song Dynasty, the land tax was determined according to the middle and lower levels, and there were fixed varieties of land taxes. For example, the summer tax was mainly levied on silk, which was used for the needs of military clothing and official clothing and materials; the autumn tax was mainly levied on grain and grain, which was used for the needs of military food and civilian food.
The two taxes in the Song Dynasty were collected on a mu, which should be said to be more reasonable, but they would not be able to withstand the changes. Although there are prescribed taxation varieties, the government can change the taxation varieties according to the needs of the time. This is the so-called method of change. According to regulations, when changing varieties, their weight, that is, their value must be equal, but this principle is not followed when actually changing, and the debt becomes a means for the government to use price fluctuations to search for people's wealth.
In addition, land tax should be paid locally according to regulations, but the government often "uses the surplus to make up for the shortcomings" as a reason to allow the people to export the levy from here to there, from near to far away. This is called transfer. The expenses required for transfer are entirely borne by the taxpayer. Those who do not want to transfer can pay money, which is called "the price of Taoli". In order to avoid the pain of losing far and paying the price of Taoli, the people often go to the designated tax grain to pay the price of the tax grain. Local officials often exploit the people in the name of transfer. The tax grain that could have been put into the warehouse nearby, and forced the people to pay the price of Taoli until the price of the tax is included in the regular tax collection.
In addition to the transfer and change of land tax in the Song Dynasty, there were other additional additional fees, such as the head money of the nature of handling fees, the charity warehouse tax called the grain storage and reserve waste, as well as the agricultural instrument money, the cattle and leather horn tax that followed the Five Dynasties, etc. There were also silkworm salt money, vinegar interest money, market money, etc. There were many additional tax items, and it continued to increase. Over time, the regular tax quickly exceeded the regular tax, and the total amount of agricultural tax exceeded three or four times the regular tax in the late Southern Song Dynasty. In short, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many additional taxes for land tax, some levied all over the country, some levied several counties or places, sometimes popular, sometimes abolished, and even more.
In addition to the regular and additional taxes collected according to the land, there was also corvee labor for farmers. The main households of the Song Dynasty also had to go to governments at all levels to serve. The burden of labor was very heavy, and some powerful landlords had to try to escape, and finally most of them fell into the middle and lower households. Once they took on heavy labor in charge of official property and the yamen in charge of chariot transportation, they often lost their entire family. Another type of miscellaneous labor was almost entirely borne by the farmers. Zhu Xi could not bear it anymore and said: In ancient times, the dynasty had prepared the method of carving and stripping...
Zhao Bing was considered half a fan of the Song Dynasty in his previous life. After hearing Zhuang Shilin's explanation, he immediately turned into a black fan. This is not the Song Dynasty where everyone wanted to travel here. It was clearly a dark "old society". Even when it was claimed to be Renzong in the Qingming Dynasty, the Shenzong Dynasty was far from historical records. As for the charity warehouse tax, it originated from the Renzong Emperor, who was known for his people-friendly access. At that time, it was mainly used to collect wealthy farmers, namely, third-class households and large and medium-sized landlords, to prevent floods and droughts. However, when the Zhezong Dynasty, it changed to pay grain to local warehouses to supplement the country's funds. Therefore, it lost the original intention of the charity warehouse and became a tax.
However, it is not difficult to understand carefully. The Song Dynasty was a civilized society, a country where literati ruled, and the best thing literati was to do was to play with pens. It was they who covered many ugly deeds under the glorious articles. Some good policies remained on paper and were not actually implemented effectively, and many heavy tax items also had reasonable explanations for their existence under the wonderful writing. Many policies that should have been implemented were trapped in repeated controversies, more discussions and less work. Many good policies could only be preserved in the beautiful imagination of some people and the numerous documents system, and what is common in society is still the evil policies that everyone can see.
In addition, the Song Dynasty also paid attention to GDP. It used tax revenue as a reward for the political achievements of local officials. Those with more classes were rewarded and those with less classes were punished. In addition, there was a saying that "envy the surplus" - officials dedicated the so-called surplus part of the local treasury income to the emperor, thus becoming a stepping stone for them to increase their ranks. Indeed, objectively, the income of the Song Dynasty's treasury increased, but it often became a motivation for local officials to make a clever name and squeeze out people's wealth, which was no different from "open robbery".
Agricultural tools are tools for agricultural production, just like we need to wear clothes and eat in our survival, which are necessities for agricultural farming. Taxation of agricultural tools is obviously an unreasonable and harsh policy. Because the quality and price of agricultural tools run by the government are low-priced, farmers are unwilling to use them, so they change to farmers' homemade iron farm tools. The government cannot make money from trading, so they change to levy agricultural tools tax, which is paid according to the summer and autumn taxes, and gradually becomes a surcharge of land tax. Later, enlightened monarchs realized that the agricultural tools tax was obviously unreasonable and issued reduction and exemption measures, but the financial situation was not good, so they re-activated.
Officials were corrupt and violent, taxes and labor were unfair, and major landlords and bureaucrats used various means to hide property and conceal the land, which resulted in most of the heavy burden on the poor people. Under the heavy taxes, a large number of farmers went bankrupt and unemployed. For the sake of livelihood, they abandoned their land and farmed, and they could only seek vitality in the wandering, thus forming a huge migrant population. Their main ways out were to join the army or serve, enter cities to engage in handicrafts or commerce, become monks, and a few or become thieves.
Although Zhao Bing's plan was removed from some of the harsh taxes he had reduced after presiding over the military and political affairs of Qiongzhou, and did not completely cut and paste, it also copied the plan. He tried his best to trick so many people into the island and spent huge amounts of money to resettle, just to increase the population and promote production. Zhao Bing also knew that only good policies could attract more people to settle in Qiong, enrich his strength, so that he could collect grain taxes to ensure expenses, and obtain guarantees for military resources.
Chapter completed!