The level of cultivation in the Ming Dynasty has improved, especially in the grain-producing area of Jiangnan, where farmers cultivate fertile land, and one acre of land can basically produce 2 stone of rice. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

A farmer can cultivate 30 acres of land a year, and the basic harvest of a year is about 65~70 stones.

At that time, the workers working in the major workshops only paid about five taels of silver a month, and at most six taels of silver a year.

According to the purchasing power of one or two lines of silver and one stone of rice at that time (Jiangnan is rich in grain, so the price of grain is low), it can only be bought six stones of rice after a year of hard work.

Although it seemed that working in the workshop had no future, the workers at that time did not need to pay a penny of taxes, that is, the money, no matter how much it was paid, was their own.

And what about the peasants? Not every peasant has so much land, and generally there can be one acre and three points of land, even if it is a rich peasant, and the rest of the land belongs to those landlords.

If a tenant farmer grows 60 stone of grain a year, the landlord will take 70%, and the tenant farmer can only get 30%, that is, 18 stone of grain, and this only 18 stone will not all belong to you, and you will have to pay taxes to the court.

In fact, the tax on agriculture in the Ming Dynasty was not high, except for all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the real agricultural tax was only 10 percent at the peak, that is to say, 60 stone of grain, and the imperial court only collected 6 stones.

But who will collect these six stones of grain?

The landlords would not be so kind to pay taxes for the tenant farmers, according to their thinking, that is, whoever farms the land pays the tax, so the tax on the six stones of grain will eventually have to be paid by the tenant farmers themselves.

According to the normal calculation, eighteen stones of grain, and then six stones, can finally leave twelve stones, which is much better than those workers.

It's a pity that the tax rate is not calculated in this way, after the imperial court reformed the monetary policy, the tenant farmers paid taxes, not to pay grain, but to pay silver, what should they do if they don't have silver in their hands?

Then sell grain for silver!

Therefore, every time the grain is harvested and taxes are paid, because a large amount of grain is sold, the price of grain will plummet in various places, and the merchants must earn the difference in price when they buy grain, so the tenant farmers sell the grain in their hands to the merchants, and they can get up to three coins of silver for one stone.

Although the imperial court collected taxes, they would also collect them according to the exchange price of silver and grain at that time, but the tenant farmers also needed to keep some surplus money to buy all kinds of daily necessities!

Therefore, even when the harvest is at its best, after the tenant farmers leave enough food for a year's life, they can get no more than two taels of silver, and those workers who work in the workshops can almost save one tael of silver after buying basic living food, and the income on both sides is about the same.

Tenant farmers need to have a good relationship with the landlord at any time, and they have to give gifts during the New Year's holidays, otherwise if the landlord does not rent this land to you, or rent a few acres of less land, the income of the tenant farmer will plummet in the coming year.

Originally, the income level of workshop workers and tenant farmers was not much different, but now as soon as the reform policy is released, the minimum wage of workers has been doubled, so that after removing the basic living expenses every year, they will be able to save a full six or seven taels of silver.

Many peasants are even considering whether to work for those workshops, and the province is looking at the faces of those landlords and old wealth for a few acres of land that does not belong to them.

But this kind of thing, just think about it, after all, many farmers have cultivated the land all their lives, and few are willing to change careers easily, not to mention that although the current life is tight, they can barely survive.

However, the next order completely detonated the surrounding crowd: "Regarding agriculture, from now on, if a family owns more than 100 mu of land, according to the average grain yield rate of the year, an additional 10% agricultural tax per mu will be charged, and if it exceeds 200 mu, an additional 20% per mu will be charged, and so on, the maximum will be 50% per mu of agricultural tax. ”

"Good! This rule is really good! As soon as the last sentence came out, people immediately began to applaud.

Seeing that the common people had not yet figured out the situation, this applauding person hurriedly explained: "Master Li's trick is very good, in the past, we worked hard to cultivate the landlord's field, and we could only get two or three percent of the grain, but those landlords, just provided the land, they had to take away seventy or eighty percent of the income, and even the taxes of the imperial court were paid by our farmers, which is simply bullying us farmers!" ”

"Look at the craftsmen who work for the merchants, many of these goods are from the hands of the craftsmen, but the merchants do not let the craftsmen pay taxes, are we farmers not even comparable to the craftsmen?"

"Lord Li is talking for our people, the people farm for the landlord, and from now on, in addition to paying rent, there is no need to pay taxes, Lord Li is really a big man!"

Since it is a war of public opinion, of course, we must let the people everywhere understand what Li Hongfei's series of reform measures are for!

"What! Lord Li is obviously harming us, originally a good rent, and then pay a certain amount of taxes, the rest is ours, but now this has changed, those landlords do not sprinkle their anger on us, if the landlord wants to pay taxes, then the rent to us will definitely be reduced, in the past can take three percent, in the future maybe only two percent, or one percent, wool out of the sheep, we are just tenant farmers, annoyed these landlords, if we don't give us land to plant, what should we do? Someone started singing "Contrarian".

Li Hongfei only stipulated that tenant farmers do not have to pay taxes, but he did not say that tenant farmers do not have to pay rent to the landlords, and in the past it was said that they only paid 70 percent to the landlords, but in fact, with the addition of imperial taxes, it was equivalent to paying 80 percent to the landlords.

If the current reform policy is really followed, those landlords who own more than 100 acres of land, in order to ensure their own interests, will not desperately squeeze these tenant farmers!

Even in the crowd, there were already several landlords, and after hearing this method, they couldn't help but light up.

"Have you forgotten the business reform that preceded you? If the landlord does not rent you land, you will go to work in the merchant's workshop, and in any case, you will earn at least one tael of silver a month, which is twice as much as you used to farm. The white-faced singer explained.

"Then everyone has gone to work, who will farm the land, there is no food, what will we eat?" The red-faced one continued to refute.

"Yes! They all went to work, who will farm the land? Someone chimed in.

"Didn't Master Li say it! Whoever has land, who pays taxes, and pays rent according to the average grain production of the year, even if there is no one farming in Suzhou, there are still people farming in other places, you only need to find other provinces, get a grain production record, Lord Li can go to these landlords to collect rent, there is no grain, even if you spend money to buy, you have to buy it, otherwise you will occupy the field and do not grow grain, and Lord Li will not accept their land! If those landlords dare to charge more rent, you just don't do it, so many fields, they can't plant them at all! The white-faced singer gave a powerful counterattack.

Li Hongfei's improvement of the treatment of workshop workers not only won the hearts of the people, but more importantly, was to give the peasants a right to choose and a right to argue with the landlords.