Wu Zheng couldn't help but speak: "Maybe there are too many royal families, and the treasury is already stretched to the top of the table with more than one million royal families. ”

Mo Zhinian rarely disagreed with Wu Zheng's words, he shook his head clearly and said, "Maybe this is one of the reasons, but it is definitely not the most fundamental reason. More than a million royal families sounds like a lot, but if you put it in a population of nearly 20,000, it is not enough to take one out of a hundred. ”

Wu Zheng argued: "But this royal family, which is less than one hundred and one, occupies six or seven percent of the land in the world. ”

Mo Zhinian shook his head and said: "The old man doesn't know where the uncle got the amount of six or seventy percent of the land, but the old man knows that at least there is no such situation in Jiangnan, if this is the case, the uncle thinks that the people of Jiangnan can agree?" According to old estimates, the land occupied by the feudal kings in various regions accounted for 2 to 30% of the total number of fields in various places. ”

Wu Zheng was a little dumbfounded, this old man did have some goods in his stomach, but Wu Zheng didn't understand, even if the people of Jiangnan didn't agree, what could they do? is also like Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng rising up?

"This official also heard about it, so Uncle Mo might as well continue to say it."

"Yes. In Lao Yu's view, the dilemma of the imperial court's finances is that with the growth of population and land, taxes have decreased, and the most fundamental thing is that taxes are collected too little. ”

The so-called words are not amazing, and Wu Zheng has gained insight today.

In this old man's mouth, the fundamental reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty is that the tax is too small, isn't this a big joke in the world?

You must know that the slogans of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's peasant uprising were equal land and tax exemption.

Wu Zheng said with a little sarcasm: "It's a shame that I didn't let you take charge of the cabinet, otherwise the Ming Dynasty might not be able to support the year before last." ”

Mo Obsession naturally heard the sarcasm in Wu Zheng's words.

He said calmly: "Uncle Rong Lao Yu finished speaking. Uncle must know that when the Ming Dynasty became an ancestor, the construction of the Forbidden City, the construction of large-scale houses in Wudang Mountain, the seven trips of the three eunuchs to the West, the five northern expeditions of the 500,000 army to Mongolia, and the repeated expeditions of hundreds of thousands of troops to the south of the Lingnan. But why was it that when the Ming Dynasty became an ancestor, the people were stable, and although the people complained about the burden, they could afford it? Why did Emperor Chongzhen cause such a big opposition when he wanted to increase his wealth? ”

Wu Zheng was attracted by Mo Zhinian's words, which was indeed a strange thing.

Sizong Zhu Youzhen is not a faint gentleman, and he also has the desire for revitalization, at least from Zhu Yujiao's mouth, Wu Zheng has obtained this kind of confirmation, Zhu Youzhen is diligent and thrifty.

It stands to reason that Daming should quickly reverse the predicament, why was he forced to hang himself by Li Zicheng? In the end, it was cheaper to build a captive in the north.

Mo Zhinian, who was encouraged by Wu Zheng's eyes, continued, "The most fundamental reason for the defeat of the Ming Dynasty was the loss of control of the taxes in the world, and the tax quota set by Emperor Hongwu became the real reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Wu Zheng asked puzzledly: "Since ancient times, the imperial court has reduced taxes, isn't it all good governance and supported by the world?" ”

Mo Zhi smiled and said: "In the tenth year of Hongwu, the emperor sent officials from various ministries, Guozi supervisors and eunuchs to inspect one hundred and seventy-eight tax departments and fixed their tax amounts, which buried the main reason for the financial collapse of the Ming Dynasty later. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the emperor ordered that the number of taxes and grain courses collected by the provinces and provinces should be engraved on the stone tablets and set up in the halls of the household departments. In the twenty-sixth year, the income from the field reached 32,278,900 stones, and Emperor Hongwu was very satisfied with this, and ordered that the new fields in the northern provinces would never be cultivated. Since then, the fixed tax has been fixed as an unwritten law, and although there have been occasional minor adjustments, the basic fixed tax has never been abandoned. ”

"During the Yongle Dynasty, the income from agricultural taxes and grain reached an unprecedented height of 34,612,600 stones, but the reason for its increase was not the increase in the tax quota, but the fact that Annam, as a newly annexed province, included its quota. Later, after the Ming Dynasty lost its rule over Annam, the annual income returned to less than 30 million stones. ”

Wu Zheng asked: "Do you mean that the imperial court fixed the maximum tax amount of each province, and made the imperial court revenue fixed?" ”

"Yes, Uncle is wise. In other words, no matter how much the population increased or the newly cultivated land was reclaimed, it could not be included in the annual tax quota of the imperial court. For the imperial court, the difference between the taxes of 10,000,000 and 20,000 is almost negligible. ”

"But with the huge increase in population and the new reclamation of land, in the past hundred years, has no one reported to the imperial court?"

Uncle asked the point. During the Xuande period, the landlords of Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places were very dissatisfied with the additional fees imposed by the imperial court on their land endowments, so they deliberately defaulted on taxes and grain, so that the amount of taxes exceeded all the local taxes for three years. To this end, Emperor Xuande made concessions and issued an order to fully reduce taxes and grain in these areas, with tax exemptions amounting to more than 3 million stones. However, this shortfall was not levied on other provinces, and from then on, the maximum annual income of the imperial court remained at around 27 million stones. ”

"I see. Do you mean that since Emperor Hongwu established the total amount of taxes, the imperial court has only reduced the taxes since then, but has not increased them? ”

It is precisely for this reason that for cultivated land, local officials only want to restore the original amount of land as the current amount of land in the court recital, and the new acres of land are rarely reported. The result of this is that taxes are detached from the actual amount of cultivated land. Since ancient times, the tax quota has been unprecedented, and no matter which Tang or Song dynasties were, there has never been such a rigid and rigid implementation of this tax policy as our dynasty. ”

"When it comes to population, it takes time for the newly growing Dingkou to grow, and it is difficult to directly contribute to the increase in taxes, and the surplus population often becomes a floating population, and it is even more difficult to tax them. Even if these populations were registered and assessed, the local government was reluctant to report them truthfully, fearing that the reported increase in population would prompt the imperial court to readjust the local annual tax quota and increase the amount of local taxes to be levied. At most, they readjusted the per capita tax burden, and as a result of the increase in the number of taxpayers, the tax burden on each household decreased, so that the tax collection was easy to collect, and at the same time, the local yamen officials also gained a reputation for benevolence, which played a good role in their evaluation in the future. ”

Wu Zheng probably understood, although he was skeptical of Mo Zhinian's statement that the loss of tax control led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but he had a new understanding of Mo Zhinian's erudition and strong memory.

It seems that this so-called wealthy businessman in Hangzhou should not be as simple as a rich businessman, right?