In addition, the taxation situation of the Ming Dynasty has been greatly improved. In recent years, the tax collected by the court has been increasing year by year. Now the tax collected by the court in a year has exceeded 500 million taels of silver.
This was an extremely huge figure. Five hundred million taels of silver were collected in one year, and the imperial treasury could not hold it, so another warehouse had to be built.
In addition, in addition to taxes and money, the collection of physical goods, such as grain, cloth, tea, etc., has also increased year by year, many times more than before.
The granaries set up by the imperial court in various places have long been full of food, and there is no way to eat it all. The food collected by the imperial court alone is enough to feed the entire Ming Dynasty for several years.
These were things that were unimaginable before.
You must know that in the ninth year of Hongzhi, the tax collected by the court per year was less than three million taels. This included the salt tax after the tax was opened. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the taxes collected by various places were
The amount of tax money is pitiful. In many cases, a large and wealthy county in the south of the Yangtze River can only collect more than ten taels of silver a year, which is simply unbelievable.
As for the physical goods collected, they have also been decreasing year by year. A large amount of land has been attached to the famous gentry and gentry to avoid the court's taxation. The granaries set up in various places are often empty, so that during disaster relief, it is often found that there is no food available.
Emperor Hongzhi saw such a huge difference.
Of course, there is Ming capitalism, the economic development brought about by the rapid development of colonialism, which can plunder huge amounts of wealth from overseas every year, coupled with the continuous expansion of Ming territory, which leads to an increase in tax revenue.
However, it was crucial for Liu Jin to implement tax reform, set up tax offices, and use strong means to collect taxes. Without this, those wealthy gentry and businessmen would not pay a single copper coin no matter how much money they earned.
The second is the reform of official administration and the assessment system, which includes tax revenue as an important assessment indicator.
There are some officials who have no job, but most of them still want to climb up the ranks. Naturally, they have to do what Liu Jin did and actively and diligently cooperate with the tax yamen to collect taxes locally in order to improve their own assessment indicators.
Get a promotion.
Emperor Hongzhi saw these things in his eyes and remembered them in his heart, so he has always fully supported Liu Jin.
Now after hearing Liu Jin's words, Emperor Hongzhi also started to think seriously.
Do you want to give Liu Jin more power so that he can better implement the system?
As for Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhang Mao, and Zhong Zhong, all of them frowned.
Of course they are aware of this matter, and many times they even come forward to explain things to some officials.
They know very well that the situation of many officials, and even themselves, is that in many cases they are still acting like old officials, who do not want to make progress and do nothing. In many cases, it is the officials at the top who take the lead.
"My dear friends, let's all live."
Emperor Hongzhi glanced around, looked at the ministers present, smiled and said.
If it had been in the past, it wouldn't have mattered much.
However, many things and problems have arisen during this annual holiday, such as a large number of migrant workers returning home, braving the severe cold and it is easy to get into trouble when returning home, plus road bandits, illegal shops, etc.
These questions were first raised by Liu Jin. Didn't any other officials notice this issue?
Someone must have noticed this problem, but no one stood up to take care of this matter, because for these high-ranking officials, they don't care about the lives and deaths of these ordinary people at all.
As long as there is no famine or civil unrest, they have nothing to do with the life and death of the people. For them, the life and death of the people may not be as important as walking in the snow to look for plum blossoms.
In addition, the opening of trains and places like railway stations with a very large flow of people can easily cause problems with public order and sanitation, but for these officials, they don't care about this matter at all.
This is obviously not possible.
Times have changed.
The scale of cities is getting larger and larger, the population of cities is increasing, the concentration of population, and the expansion of cities will bring about a large number of new problems, which place higher requirements on the timely response ability of officials.
When problems arise, we need to solve them in a timely manner instead of waiting until the problem becomes serious to figure out how to solve it.
For example, if a disease like smallpox spreads in the city, if it is not controlled in time, how many people will die in the entire city with a population of one million?
Can the style of previous officials be used to deal with these new problems?
Obviously, it definitely won't work.
Inaction, idle and inactive officials are very likely to cause huge losses to the Ming Dynasty.
To use a simple metaphor.
In the past, the Ming Dynasty was like an oxcart. It was slow and leisurely. It was a good thing to be inactive as an official. As long as you could be clean and maintain local stability and order, it was enough.
But now the Ming Dynasty is like a rumbling train moving at high speed. Officials, as drivers, naturally have to concentrate and be ready to deal with various emergencies. Otherwise, once the train overturns, the losses will be heavy.
.
"Your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty is now at the beginning of a great era."
"The rapidly developing factories, workshops, overseas trade and colonization, as well as the vast land that our Ming Dynasty is expanding every year, and the rapidly growing population."
"These are situations that have never happened in previous dynasties. Therefore, there are many things that we cannot learn from history, but must pioneer and innovate."
"The first step in governing a country is to govern the country. Officials also need to keep up with the development of the times and constantly adapt to the new era. Only in this way can they better assist the emperor in governing the country."
Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian and others next to him looked at each other and saw that everyone wanted him to stand up and speak. He had no choice but to think about it for a while and stand up to speak.
First of all, he expressed an attitude on the surface, that is, the times are undergoing great changes, and officials can no longer live a leisurely life with their legs crossed and drinking tea as before.
Officials must also continue to improve with the changes of the times, and the requirements for officials must also continue to increase, so that they can better manage the increasingly large Ming Empire.
"The administrative reform and assessment system formulated by Liu Jin have adapted to the development needs of the new era and are policies that benefit the country and the people!"
"The court should punish officials who do nothing and remain idle."
"It's just that under the administrative reform and assessment system, the promotion of officials focuses on political performance, and the personal ethics of officials are not paid attention to. It is also easy for some officials to do whatever it takes to achieve their own political achievements."
"For example, in some places, in order to build roads and bridges, some officials forced the local gentry and people to contribute money and effort to build cement roads and build new bridges."
"In some poor places, the people are already in dire straits, but each household has to spend more than ten taels of silver to build roads and bridges."
"Building roads and building bridges is naturally a good thing that is beneficial to the country and the people, but it must also be done according to local conditions. Some officials are unwilling to force the common people and gentry, so they will naturally suffer losses in the assessment and promotion."
"This is also the reason why many officials oppose the assessment system."
Liu Jian's attitude is still very clear. Assessments must be carried out, and officials who do nothing but do nothing must be punished. However, the assessment system itself may not be perfect enough. In order to achieve political performance, local officials can easily force local people to do things that no one is willing to do.
"Hmm~"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he nodded slightly.
Liu Jin frowned. Liu Jin naturally knew what Liu Jian said. There are indeed such officials who will do anything for political achievements.
For example, in terms of encouraging childbirth, people in the Ming Dynasty were encouraged to have foreign concubines, or buy slaves to have more children. In this way, the population would grow very quickly.
For the purpose of infrastructure construction, local gentry and people were indeed forced to contribute money and effort to build roads and bridges. Some poor places even caused trouble.
"Your Majesty, I also believe that those officials who do nothing and sit idle should be punished. However, the assessment system also needs to be changed. We cannot do it too hastily. Some officials are eager for success. Not only do they not achieve the desired results, but they have serious consequences.
To ensure the stability of the place.”
Li Dongyang thought for a while and stood up to express his position.
Those who do not act will be punished, but the assessment system must also continue to be improved. We cannot just look at the results without looking at the costs or consequences. It must be considered comprehensively.
"Liu Gong, what Li Gong said is true. Officials who are doing nothing and sitting on a bare diet are better off going home and planting sweet potatoes. When an official is responsible for the people, he or she must lead the people to make a fortune."
Zhang Mao also spoke. Relatively speaking, he naturally supported Liu Jin more.
Each minister followed and spoke one after another, but their meanings were almost the same.
Everyone is a smart person, and they all understood the meaning of Emperor Hongzhi from his words.
For Emperor Hongzhi, he was a monarch who was determined to make a difference and achieve great things. Naturally, he would not tolerate those officials who were sitting idle and doing nothing. What's more, he said at the beginning that this was the beginning of a great era. The Ming Empire was dealing with
In such a position, naturally it can no longer be the same as before.
What's more, no one wants to live through those hard days in the past.
In the past, the court had a hard time, the emperor had a hard time, and the life of officials was not easy either. Apart from anything else, the salary and benefits were so low that it was difficult to become a corrupt official.
Now that the imperial court is rich, the salaries of officials have been increased many times, and everyone's life is much better.
"Since all my dear friends have the same opinion, it has been decided that those officials who have done nothing and are lying dead will be sent to Nanjing to retire!"
