Thinking of this, Liu Jin couldn't help but shake his head.
Taxation is really very important.
The taxes in the Ming Dynasty were very, very low, which can be regarded as the lowest at all times and in all countries.
But even with such a low tax, some people are still dissatisfied. It would be best not to charge taxes.
However, without the support of sufficient tax revenue, the court would not be able to operate well, and the most important aspect of military construction would be difficult to carry out at all.
The Ming Dynasty's army was actually very powerful. Zhu Yuanzhang was able to conquer the world with it, and Zhu Di was able to attack Mobei five times with it. This all shows how powerful the Ming Dynasty's army was.
But since the Tumubao Incident, the Ming Dynasty's army seemed to have lost its backbone, and it was no longer the Ming army that swept the world.
There are many reasons that led to the rapid decline in the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. Among them, the military generals were led by civilian officials. The military generals had a low status and had no voice or leadership rights. They were amateurs who commanded experts.
But the real fundamental reason lies in the fact that the funds and supplies needed by the Ming Dynasty's army cannot be guaranteed. Under the military household system, at the beginning of the system, military households still had enough military land to live a prosperous life and have sufficient combat effectiveness.
ensure.
But as time goes by, military households' military fields are occupied by senior regiments and nobles, and military households become increasingly miserable. When even eating is a problem, can you expect them to defend their homes and country?
In fact, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, whether it was the Qi Army that wiped out the Japanese pirates or the Liaodong Army that fought against the Tatars in the later period, the Guan Ning Army, the Baigan Army, etc., they were all professional armies, relying on the military pay and food pay from the court.
It is no longer the original military household.
The original military household has long been in disrepair and has no use at all.
In addition, the imperial court had no money, so there was no way to do some public infrastructure construction, such as building dams for the Yellow River and dredging the Huaihe River.
The dams of the Yellow River are in disrepair, and there are floods and droughts every year. The Huaihe River is silted up, water transportation is blocked, and food from the south cannot be sent to the north in time, etc.
These problems continued to burst out in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the rich gentry and businessmen did not pay taxes or grain, but the poor people who had no money were bearing increasingly heavy taxes.
.
How could the Ming Dynasty survive?
Looking at now, after Liu Jin's tax reform, the establishment of tax yamen, and the introduction of commercial taxes, the tax collection of the imperial treasury is increasing year by year, and now the annual tax revenue exceeds 500 million taels of silver.
Coupled with the large amount of in-kind taxes collected from grain, cloth, tea, etc., the Ming court suddenly had enough money to do things.
It is not only possible to restructure the army, implement a compulsory military service system, and raise millions of retired troops. The army is well-trained and well-equipped. It has won many foreign battles and continuously expanded its territory.
Moreover, it can also greatly increase the salary and treatment of officials, so as to prevent the Hongwu Dynasty from starving to death of court officials, and it can also give confidence to officials who want to be upright.
We can also carry out large-scale infrastructure construction, build roads, railways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, ports, etc., and even carry out large-scale immigration every year.
Which of these does not cost money?
If it had not been for the tax reform and the money in the imperial treasury, it would have been impossible to handle these major events.
Therefore, it would be impossible to have the current prosperous and powerful situation of the Hongzhi Dynasty.
Therefore, taxes must be collected persistently.
In the hands of these big families, big gentry, and big businessmen, silver is like a lump buried in the cellar and has no effect at all. But in the hands of the court, it can play a big role and promote the development of the entire Ming Empire.
"Lao Wang, do you need any support from me?"
Liu Jin pondered and said.
"Of course, I need your full support."
"If you hadn't been supporting me, I would have been killed long ago."
Wang Shouren smiled and nodded solemnly.
This is no joke, it's true.
Wang Shouren was in charge of the Jiangnan tax administration in the Jiangnan area, and he offended many people. Behind these people were officials from the imperial court.
The memorials to impeach Wang Shouren will not be much less than those to impeach Liu Jin.
There were several times when the imperial censor, the Censor Yanguan, impeached Wang Shouren at court meetings and wanted to get him out of Jiangnan or change his official position.
Lao Wang is not an ordinary person. These people in the Jiangnan area have come up with all kinds of ways to evade taxes. Lao Wang will take advantage of them and use various methods to force you to pay taxes.
In addition, Lao Wang himself has a deep foundation, and there is a hen like Caiyun Textile Factory that lays golden eggs. Water cannot pour into it, a knife cannot penetrate, and there is no way to defeat Lao Wang.
Lao Wang can only be removed through impeachment.
But all these were blocked by Liu Jin, and Emperor Hongzhi also liked Wang Shouren very much. Before the intestinal carbuncle surgery, he told Zhu Houzhao that the only capable ministers in governing the country were Liu Jin and Wang Shouren. If he unfortunately left, Zhu Houzhao would
Reuse Liu Jin and Wang Shouren in the future.
Therefore, the memorial to impeach Wang Shouren was ignored.
However, Wang Shouren encountered many constraints in the Jiangnan region. The power of the tax governor was limited to tax collection and did not have any other powers.
"I know~"
Liu Jin looked at Wang Shouren, then nodded solemnly and said.
It happened that Feng Shiyong, the chief envoy of Southern Zhili, went home to plant sweet potatoes. I was considering candidates for this position. Now that I think about it, Lao Wang couldn't be more suitable.
With him as the chief envoy to Southern Zhili and in charge of Southern Zhili, Liu Jin felt more at ease.
After he has worked in Nanzhili for a few years, he will be transferred back to the capital as a minister or something. By that time, there will be more practical officials in the court.
Lao Wang's promotion rate is even faster than that of his father. Now his father Wang Hua is only a third-grade official, and Lao Wang will soon surpass his father.
While the two were chatting, they were also inspecting the factory.
"This Jiangnan has always been the most prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty. This acre of land may only cost two or three taels of silver in other places, but here in Jiangnan, even the worst acre of land costs
Seventy-eight taels of silver."
"However, over the years, Jiangnan has begun to lag behind Beizhili."
"I have been thinking hard about this question. Why can Beizhili surpass the Jiangnan area in a short period of time? You must know that the prosperity of Jiangnan did not arise in a year or two, but after a long period of accumulation and development.
Precipitated.”
Wang Shouren and Liu Jin got along very well. Liu Jin, who came from a later generation, had knowledge and insights that people of this era did not have. Wang Shouren always benefited a lot from every conversation with Liu Jin.
Therefore, when he was with Liu Jin, he always had many things he wanted to discuss with Liu Jin.
"Later, after doing some research, I realized that what really makes Beizhili surpass the Jiangnan region is not anything else, but the factories and machines in front of me."
"oh?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Jin raised his eyebrows slightly and signaled Wang Shouren to continue speaking.
"Traditional wealth accumulation mainly relies on land production. One acre of land can only produce so much food in a year. The reason why Jiangnan is rich is because the land in Jiangnan is fertile and the food output is high.
With the addition of silkworms, tea leaves, and salt boiling by the sea, the prosperity of Jiangnan has already begun."
"But this kind of wealth accumulation is very slow. The wealth accumulated in one year or ten years is not much. As for my family, it is considered a big family in Zhejiang. After several generations of accumulation, the most wealth is actually
It’s just the little farmland at home.”
"However, factories and machinery are different. The production speed and efficiency of these machines are very high. In the same period of time, a person's production efficiency is more than ten times, dozens of times, or even hundreds of times higher than before."
"A factory often occupies only a few acres or more than a dozen acres, but it can support hundreds or thousands of workers at the same time and produce hundreds of thousands or millions of taels of property a year."
"And regardless of the season, rain or shine, this terrifying speed of wealth creation is exactly why Beizhili can quickly surpass Jiangnan."
"The power and speed of machines are far beyond the power and speed of superhuman beings~"
"In the future, with the emergence of more and more powerful machines, factories will be more efficient and create wealth faster, but the traditional accumulation of wealth based on agriculture will lag far behind and be eliminated.
It’s getting bigger and bigger.”
"Therefore, if a place wants to develop rapidly, the most important thing is to rely on factories, workshops and machines!"
Wang Shouren used himself as an example to illustrate the power of the machine and the reason why Beizhili quickly surpassed Jiangnan.
Hearing Wang Shouren's words, Liu Jin also laughed.
With the development of industrialization in later generations, the first country to complete industrialization can easily defeat other feudal dynasties in the world. The powerful productivity brought about by industrialization creates wealth at a rate far faster than ever before.
"The Jiangnan region still has its own advantages. It is densely populated, has many wealthy people, is rich in resources, and has convenient transportation. In the future, with the emergence of a large number of factories in the Jiangnan region, it is very likely that the Jiangnan region will soon surpass Beizhi again.
scribe."
"Songhu is developing extremely rapidly and has a very strong momentum. It is very likely that it will become the next Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty."
Wang Shouren asserted very definitely that in Jiangnan, he saw the advantages and potential of Jiangnan, and also clearly understood the problems that the Jiangnan area is currently facing.
"Old Wang, you are right, industry is the foundation of a strong country!"
"The traditional society that relies mainly on agriculture is actually very fragile, because agricultural output is very limited. There is only so much food produced in a year, and there is not much left after eating it. It is difficult to accumulate wealth.
, it’s difficult, but industry is completely different, it has unlimited possibilities!”