Chapter 568 The Yellow Book of the Fifteenth Year of Chongzhen
"Your Majesty, not long after the martial arts hall was established, there were several nobles who wanted to sneak their own children in..."
The majestic Jian Cheng raised his head and expressed his dissatisfaction.
This person is none other than Yu Huai, who was once the emperor's personal bodyguard. He was rescued from absenteeism and was regarded as a useful talent, so he was appointed as the supervisor.
"As long as you pass the martial arts examination, you can naturally come to the martial arts hall."
The emperor said coldly: "This is not the Imperial Academy, so we can't let them do whatever they want."
Unlike the Qing Dynasty, which sold officials and titles at clearly marked prices, the Ming Dynasty was obsessed with it. For fear of a bad reputation and poverty, it only sold some places in the Imperial College.
Although the supervisors do not have the title of scholar, they can take part in the provincial examination and the general examination, and more importantly, the supervisors can have their own way to become an official.
Although they are all minor officials, they are still officials after all.
The Imperial College, a mixed bag of good and bad things, has lost its reputation as it was in the early Ming Dynasty.
You must know that in the early Ming Dynasty, when the imperial examination was suspended for a few years, the Imperial College supervisors could become officials as soon as they graduated. Zhu Yuanzhang especially liked to use these hard-working supervisors.
For example, the first large-scale land survey and household registration survey in the Ming Dynasty was the result of several years of hard work by thousands of supervisors.
Cheap labor began in the early Ming Dynasty.
Wait, cheap labor...
Yu Huai's slightly mean face also showed a happy expression at this time.
Obviously, the emperor attached great importance to the martial arts hall, and his future was stable.
"You, the eunuch, have the rank of sixth grade, and you are still a civil servant."
As he said that, the emperor patted his shoulders: "It's easy for civil servants to get promoted, so work hard..."
These words completely made Yu Huai feel emotional.
After returning to the villa impatiently, the emperor called Jiang Yueguang, the Minister of Rites, and proposed the expansion of the Imperial College.
He couldn't wait to use cheap labor like Guozijiansheng.
With the move of the capital to Beijing, the imperial court gradually became more stable, the central government operated smoothly, and its control over local areas naturally increased to a higher level.
In this way, the re-editing of the Yellow Book will naturally be put on the agenda.
Although the Yellow Book was compiled every ten years in the Ming Dynasty, and the most recent one was even in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the credibility is almost zero.
And there is no shortage of Imperial College students.
"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" Jiang Yueguang was shocked when he heard that the Imperial College was going to be rebuilt. This was a good opportunity to become famous:
"If the grandeur of Taizu's time can be restored, I will die without regrets."
"Yes." Zhu Yixi nodded seriously.
In his conception, Imperial College students could not only serve as cheap labor, but also win over local gentry. Best of all, they could supplement the imperial examination.
The Imperial College can be turned into a university, and graduates will be assigned to be officials, and the teaching materials, teachers, etc. will be arranged by themselves. This is called targeted training.
Technology should not be touched lightly, but the Imperial Academy, which has been reduced to mud, can be easily kneaded.
"The Imperial College should not be located in a prosperous place. It should be far away from the capital so that the students can study seriously. ******* said with a smile on his face: "Let it be in Yuquan Mountain. The mountains and rivers here are beautiful and suitable."
It's also closer to me so I can keep an eye on it.
"The Ministry of Household Affairs is ordered to approve 20,000 yuan to build a new Imperial College."
"Your Majesty, Holy Ming——"
Jiang Yueguang bowed down tremblingly, almost moved to tears.
"Get back on your feet, Jiang Qing."
Zhu Yixi said sincerely: "I will issue a clear decree to each province and government, requiring them to submit tribute students for admission. The rest will be left to you."
Bagongsheng, that is, outstanding scholars, are recommended by local officials.
"I will certainly live up to your majesty's high expectations." Jiang Yueguang said with great momentum.
After he left, the emperor was not idle and asked people to move the yellow book of Shuntian Mansion.
The new yellow book is based on Zhang Juzheng's one-whip method and focuses on land rather than population, so the fish scale album occupies the main place.
The atlas records in detail the number of each piece of land, the name of the land owner, the number of acres of land, the land size, and the grade of the land.
The shape of each piece of land is drawn as a picture, like a fish scale, so it is called "Fish Scale Atlas".
This densely packed album may seem a bit childish, but it is the foundation of imperial rule and the foundation of taxation and corvee.
With the distortion of the Yellow Book, it actually means the collapse of the foundation of rule.
"There are no business or lowly registrations in the yellow book?"
After taking a brief look at the population, Zhu Yixi was shocked.
There are three categories: civilian, military, and craftsmen. Military households provide military service, while civilian households provide taxes and levies. Craftsman households include many categories, including craftsmen households (handicraft industry), kitchen households (salt cooking industry), and even Le households (entertainment industry).
But there is no business registration.
Among scholars, farmers, and merchants, the control over merchants was lacking.
"No wonder, no wonder it's so difficult to collect commercial taxes, so we have to resort to land tax."
Zhu Yixi suddenly realized.
The most powerful trump card of the imperial court was land tax. For merchants, collecting commercial taxes was a waste of time and effort.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang had deep knowledge and knew that merchants were just white gloves for the gentry, it didn't matter whether they could make them or not.
But it could not withstand the birth of Shanxi merchants, Hui merchants, Shaanxi merchants and other business gangs.
There are rumors on the Internet that commercial taxes accounted for half of the country in the Song Dynasty. This is actually a fallacy, because those doing business were all officials and gentry, so how could they willingly give money to the court.
Collect your own money?
It was also difficult to collect business taxes in the Song Dynasty. Even during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the amount was only seven to eight million yuan a year, which was actually similar to that of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, it carried out a monopoly, and all profitable transactions were controlled by the court, such as wine, tea, horses, iron, vinegar, etc., using state-owned enterprises to directly make money and exclude them.
The Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, completely left things alone. Profitable businesses such as iron, wine, and vinegar were all run by the private sector. Even the minerals that belonged entirely to the court were stolen by the gentry, and the mine supervisors were driven away.
It is well-known as hiding wealth among the people. It was indeed effective during the founding of the country. Commerce drove the development of society, but later it poached the court itself.
Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, there were large merchant gangs such as Shanxi merchants, Hui merchants, and Shaanxi merchants, but in the Song Dynasty, when the state-owned economy was prosperous, merchant gangs could not be born at all.
After reading the second half, Zhu Yixi understood something.
Although there are no merchants on the yellow list, small merchants can't escape being bullied and are called shopkeepers. They have to pay money, but they can't get into the pockets of the court.
And those big merchants were not happy at this time. Although they did not have to pay taxes, they were not able to participate in the imperial examination because they were not registered as households.
For example, the salt merchants, at their request, established merchant registration during the Wanli period, allowing their children to qualify for the imperial examination, but they still did not belong to the household registration category.
Therefore, the court clearly knows the land and real estate owned by ordinary people, but the big merchants do not need to register their property status, which makes them coveted.
"How unfair."
Zhu Yixi sighed repeatedly, fortunately I have equal household registration, everyone is a civilian household, and there is no way to hide.
Having said this, another shortcoming of the yellow book is also reflected, it does not accept low-ranking people.
The lowly status here does not refer to Lehu, craftsmen, etc., but to people who are dependent on their master's family and unable to provide taxes and servants to the court.
Such as slaves, tenants, etc., with complete personal protection.
The court could not get anything out of these people, so it did not recognize them as human beings and would not register them.
However, Yongzheng abolished all lowly status, which resulted in a huge population explosion.
People have always been there, but the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty did not acknowledge it.