Chapter 62: The Decree of Amnesty

Orthodoxy is thirty-two years old.

Zhu Qizhen issued an amnesty edict that can be called the first order of law change.

The content of the amnesty is also like the name. But it's a little bit richer.

First of all, the world was amnesty on the grounds that the world was peaceful.

Specifically, heavy sentences are commuted and light sentences are pardoned. Most of the death sentences were changed to popularity, and they were exiled to Ili in the Western Regions. This is also to consolidate border defenses.

Of course, that's not all.

Pardon all untouchables.

Whether it is the so-called fishermen with nine surnames in Chen Youliang's old department, or the old ministers of Jianwen, or the Tan people at sea, and those who have been corrupted into lowly status because of crimes, they will all be pardoned.

This is also to increase manpower for the purpose of expanding border immigration.

Although, Qiu Jun has always taken out the matter of Yizhou, that is, Taiwan's development.

But in fact, in Yizhou, there are many people who die of disease, killed by natives, died of plague, were bitten to death by snakes and insects, and so on.

It's just that who wants to leave their homeland unless they have to.

These immigrants are all people who can't survive in Fujian, and their lives are worthless. Most of the officials lived in Yizhou about the same as in Fujian.

The people who really go deep into the wilderness and have calluses are ordinary people. Many deaths are not seen in official documents.

Therefore, the development of frontier wasteland requires a lot of manpower support and consumption.

In addition, the concept of untouchability has been removed from the law.

In other words, even if someone commits another crime in the future, there will be no such judicial operation as putting the family member into the untouchable status.

This leads to another issue, that is, the identity of the slave.

The release of slaves and maids as beloved, since ancient times, there have been many Ming monarchs, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty and others, all in order to strengthen the control of the state and the people.

It is also a battle for population between the local powerful and the central power.

This population war, from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, is to present the country little by little to deconstruct the relationship between master and servant. From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the slave system of complete control little by little turned into a contract employment system.

Even the main body of slaves and maids in the Song Dynasty was completely hired slaves and maids, and they were still good people in law and were not regarded as untouchables.

But although the law stipulates this, even so, the identity of hiring slaves and maids is very embarrassing, and it can be said that it is good or bad, and it is not cheap.

But in the Yuan Dynasty, there was a big regression. Slavery fought back. After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, slaves and maids were abolished, and slaves and maids were not allowed to be used unless they were official eunuchs.

The common people have slaves and maidservants, and a hundred rods, and let them go.

It's just that this policy can probably still be implemented during the Hongwu period, but after that, after the recovery of the Ming economy, many wealthy families will naturally hire people.

Therefore, in the Ming law, use hired workers, this

noun to refer specifically to this class.

Moreover, the rich also use the name of righteous men and women to confuse the behavior of hired people.

Although Zhu Qizhen also knew that his order could not directly destroy this kind of social reality, after all, the reason why there was such a situation was because of the economic logic behind it.

A single paper command can be changed, and Taizu Taizong has already done it well.

In the matter of cracking down on private ownership of slaves and maids, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were unanimous.

But why did Zhu Qizhen cut the law change first.

But it is one thing that he deeply meant, that is, if you don't stab under this kind of personal relationship, many things will meet a dead knot.

First of all, to develop industry, you need to have workers, right?

But under the Ming legal system, there is actually no such identity as a worker.

You may say, didn't you talk about hiring workers before? This is not a worker?

Yes and no.

Different words have different interpretations in different eras.

The word hired worker is actually a kind of reference for slave and maid.

Although these people also signed contracts, it was not a similar labor contract that many people think, but a deed of sale. Maybe it won't be sold for a lifetime, there is a time limit.

But in reality, these time constraints are sometimes empty words.

Once this contract is signed, it is equivalent to determining the status of master and servant.

Of course, there are also some simple employment relationships nowadays, where you pay and do things, but generally they are short-term jobs. Generally, long-term tenants and others have the right to depend on people.

Just think about it.

Even in the workplace of later generations, there are still so many unspoken rules.

In the Ming Dynasty, the interpretation of the good man as a hired worker is also very vague, and there is something unclear, and the people of the Ming Dynasty will not work for people until they have to.

And where is the equality of personality between the strong master and the weak poor?

First of all, there is no such thing as a worker, whether it is possible to develop industry, just to put it simply, even if it can really develop industry.

Zhu Qizhen is about to face a terrible fact.

Every big factory owner is not a big factory owner, but a powerful man with tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Because this social relationship gives them the power of personal attachment.

Think about the more than a million people under Gou Taiming are workers of this nature, can the government sleep.

The first thing Zhu Qizhen did in Shaofu's reform was not to improve the treatment of artisan households? And the selection of officials to be edicted from among the craftsmen is actually to abolish the relationship between the craftsmen and the personal dependence and restriction of the imperial court.

Zhu Qizhen emphasized this point, in fact, he did not think of liberating the hired workers who served in these families at once, but he wanted to emphasize that if the relationship between the workers and the factory owners is established, it is simple

working relationship, and no personal dependency.

In the future, the Ming Dynasty will only have military households, civilian registration, and at most one sergeant registration, which will be a person who is an official, and there will be no other identity person.

Zhu Qizhen also emphasized in the edict the power of good people.

There is the power to take the imperial examination, there is the right to join the army, except for the government, no punishment can be increased, even if there is a servant to sign a contract, there is no deed of sale, but similar to the labor contract of later generations, the least weak party, has the right to terminate the contract, and so on.

While no one is created equal, a lot of power has been secured. Only when the people have this most basic power can there be industrial development.

Otherwise, most people will stay on the small workshop.

Of course, it takes a long, long time for an edict to be put forward and implemented, and Zhu Qizhen can foresee that for a long time, this edict will be a dead letter.

But what Zhu Qizhen wants to determine is not where it cannot be implemented, but what can be implemented, and I think that for a long time in the future, factories will be opened in densely populated places.

Zhu Qizhen only needs to ensure that these places can be implemented.

At the very least, the factory owners should not be allowed to oppose the imperial court in this way.

In addition, Zhu Qizhen also has to interrupt the personal dependence relationship in agriculture.

The unique system of the Ming Dynasty is the servant system.

Many landlords in the south will distribute land to their slaves and let them serve their tenants, and these generations will serve a certain family, and they will develop to only know the orders of the master's family, and do not know the existence of the Ming court.

In addition, there is another trickery, that is, hanging one's land in the name of a meritorious person to evade the tax and forced labor of the imperial court, and so on.

It is also this difference in identity that is exploited.

On both sides of the Yangtze River at the end of the Ming Dynasty, in Jiangnan, Huizhou, and Hubei, there were nose cutting parties or something, all of which were the rebellion of these new slaves.

This is not what Zhu Qizhen wants to see.

Whether it is for the unification of government decrees or for the sake of taxation by the imperial court. Zhu Qizhen wants to see the model of the Ming government's direct jurisdiction over the good people.

Even if this model is not fully realized. Zhu Qizhen also has to leave a hole first.

Little by little, I am moving in this direction.

It's a good idea, but if you want to do that, the modern legal system needs to be heavily supplemented, and that's not a problem.

Wang Shu has been immersed in the Daming Law a lot over the years, and it is not a difficult thing to formulate a set of laws that are in line with Zhu Qizhen's wishes.

However, there are higher requirements for the grassroots administrative ability of the Ming Dynasty.

It is impossible for a grassroots government that cannot handle even the simplest yellow books to complete such complicated operations. Therefore, although this matter is not said, the reform of the officials is the supporting facilities of this decree.

The establishment of the official system by Fei Xu is the premise of all reforms in Zhu Qizhen, otherwise it is a dead letter.