The style of this Shanghai Daily is almost no different from the newspapers seen in later generations, above the first page, is the registration of the Wei tablet, and in the box on the left is the date and seal number of the twenty days of the winter month of the ninth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, and the total number is the third thousand one hundred sixth. On the right are the tariffs and newspaper addresses.

The whole first edition, in addition to the palm-sized catalog in the middle, the rest is a variety of advertisements, most of which are to promote all kinds of novelty goods, what Fushuntang's "official test cough medicine", Xinhua Cloth Factory's "cicada wings, new cloth, Shengyuantang's "bird's nest cow marrow paste", Haiyi Company's Luzon tobacco and so on. Novelty products not only have words, but also accompanied by pictures to indicate their own trademarks. For example, the title is, Shengyuantang Bird's Nest Beef Marrow Cake is remembered in this picture", the picture is a fat black cow resting on the grass by the water, accommodating a few strokes, vivid, concise, vivid and intuitive. Let people remember the logo of such a product at once, which can be described as novel in form, the content is you, and it also makes the newspaper look lively and vivid.

There are also a few advertisements that inform the opening of new stores, as well as advertisements for Western curiosities and fairs, all of which are only an inch square, but with the circulation of Shanghai Daily today, I am afraid that it will cost merchants a lot of money.

After reading the advertisements on the homepage, my silent eyes fell on the middle of the catalog, only to see that the singular version was all advertisements, or shipping schedule news, commercial information, etc., in addition, there were also published notices, statements,

Advertisements for social services, such as tracing persons and notices. Of course, at this time, the first editions are called chapters, and advertisements are not called advertisements, but confessions. Newspapers gather similar advertisements into one central page, which is called confession...... Including book confessions, dining confessions, theater confessions, etc., as well as ship dates, bank markets, etc. For example, if you turn to the "Sailing Date" in Chapter 5, you can get a glimpse of the sailing information from Shanghai Port, and the departure time and destination are clear at a glance: or the theater confession in Chapter 9, which lists the recent plays staged by major theaters in Shanghai and the number of performances of famous actors. This will not only increase revenue, but also improve the functionality of the newspaper, which the newspaper will naturally be happy to do.

Even chapters are the newspaper's own content.

Silence saw that the second chapter was the news of the city, the fourth chapter was the important news of the imperial court, the sixth chapter was the southeast Caixin, the eighth was the famous politics, the tenth chapter was the securities information, the twelfth chapter was the market of various goods, the fourteenth chapter was the discussion of the scriptures, and the sixteenth chapter was a selection of foreign newspapers...... In addition, as long as you add an additional five pennies, you can buy a 16-page supplement, which is the layout style of Shanghai Daily, which claims to have a circulation of 50,000 yuan. The rest of the newspapers have volumes, folded pages, and have their own styles, but the layout arrangement is basically the same, but they have their own emphasis according to the characteristics of each family.

…… One...... One...... One...... One...... One...... Seeing that Shanghai's newspapers put the local news above the important news of the imperial court, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly, he picked up the purple clay pot and took a sip, first read the local news, there are hot lawsuits to track, there are people's livelihood issues to focus on, there are festival gatherings to introduce, there are gonzo gatherings gathered in all aspects of Shanghai, and the language is easy to understand, as long as people who are rough enough to understand the text.

What interests Shen Mo the most is the tracking of a hot case, through which he learns that this is a dispute between a landlord and a tenant farmer, caused by a landlord's request to change the way of collecting rent, but the tenant farmer refuses on the grounds that it is within the contract period. The two sides had no choice but to go to court, first in the county, the county magistrate ruled in favor of the landlord, and the two sides changed the contract of land rent, changing the original monetary rent to rent in kind, and changing the original 80-year long contract to a 10-year short contract.

According to this seemingly ordinary lawsuit, it should never be mentioned again as the result of the normal poor losing to the rich. However, this incident caused an uproar at the time, and the tenants were indignant, and their children who worked in Shanghai even went to the prefect's yamen to beat the drum and voice their grievances, and there was a great momentum of not giving up on the case.

This unusual reaction naturally attracted the attention of the newspaper office with a keen sense of smell, and they sent a special person to investigate, and they actually found evidence that the landlord had bribed the county officials, and stabbed it in the newspaper. In order to eliminate the bad influence and restore the public's trust, he also specially announced that the case would be tried and the newspaper and the gentry were allowed to observe.

But Sun Yan never expected that this seemingly simple case would be fought for a whole year, during which there was no result after eight court visits, and it got bigger and bigger, and finally hit the Nanjing Criminal Department.

And what's even more bizarre is that this case has long been no longer the original complaint between the two people, but has become a fierce confrontation between the two groups. It was the landlord group that supported the landlords, but it was not only the peasants who supported the peasants, but also the industrial and commercial circles in the cities. During this period, the think tanks of both sides searched exhaustively, tried their best to make strange moves, and even invited a huge group of speakers to win the lawsuit, which can be said to be at a loss of money.

Some scholars have noticed that this is definitely not an accidental event, but a manifestation of the contradiction of interests between different groups during the period of social transition. Shen Mo followed the last hint of this news, and turned to the fourteenth chapter of "Talking about the Scriptures" to a person with the pen name "Yuchi", an in-depth analysis of this incident.

The "Yuchi,,The focus of the dispute between the two sides is whether to change the monetary fixed amount of land rent back to the rent in kind,Recalling that more than ten years ago,The landlord collected the rent,Or mainly in kind。 Ten years ago, however, landlords in the southeast forced tenants to re-sign their contracts, no longer accepting goods in kind, but all cashiers. It's only been ten years, why do the landlords change their minds and want to change back? According to Shen Gelao's economics, the purpose of any behavior is an economic purpose, and we try to analyze the two contradictory mentalities of the landlords.

In fact, the landlords' conversion of rent in kind to monetary rent was basically synchronized with the implementation of a whip law. The disadvantage of the imperial court changing the tax on land in kind to silver and allowing silver to be paid in lieu of servitude was that taxpayers had to sell the physical goods produced in exchange for silver to pay the tax. In this process, it is inevitable to be subject to the cross-examination of the Nose Man Group. In order to transfer the burden to the tenants, the landlords changed their rent collection methods and began to collect monetary rent.

In addition, collecting money rent can also eliminate the way for tenants to steal and play tricks. Farmers in the south of the Yangtze River specialize in planting a kind of rice called "Budao glutinous", which pays rent, because of its high yield, less rice, and poor quality, so it is called "Yanguan rice." There is also a kind of miscanthus rice, the mango is about two inches long, and the amount of rice produced every four stones is not as good as one stone of other rice, so the landlord and tenant farmers often have disputes, although the magistrate repeatedly prohibited, but the peasants still pay the rent. After changing to monetary rent, you can not be exempted from the rent of l times of grain... Coupled with the changes in the world, people's views on money and things are very different from those of their predecessors. It is no longer the norm to be simple and unpretentious, but to take pride in luxury. Therefore, the landlord does not pay more attention to the corn but to the money, and the money does not suffer from the lack of corn. And the transfer is slow, easy to use all things, and more gold is especially convenient.

Under the combined influence of these factors, the landlords' group was eager to change the way of collecting rents, and under their activities, although the provinces allowed the landlords to "start their own land and tenant another land", although it aroused great opposition, under the strong instigation of Xu Gelao, the landlords still re-signed the land deeds with the tenants, and changed the rent in kind to the rent in kind to the rent in money.

But why do you want to change it again just after ten years? There is only one reason, and that is the skyrocketing prices! If anyone who has a newspaper from 10 years ago and takes a look at it, he will find that in the past 10 years, the prices of firewood, rice, oil, salt, clothing, food, housing, and transportation have doubled on average, and this is the result of the government's consistent efforts to stabilize the prices of commodities that have a bearing on the people's livelihood. Prices that are not essential for life have risen by a factor of two.

In economics, it is often the fixed-income group that suffers the most from rising prices. The unlucky landlords took great pains to change the rent in kind into a fixed rent in money, and they were honored to join the ranks.

According to a survey conducted by the daily newspaper, the average annual rent income of the landlords was 500 taels of silver, 150 taels for the payment of various taxes, 200 taels for basic expenses, and 150 taels for improving living or expanding production.

Every year when prices rise by 10 percent, his cost of living increases by 20 taels, and his discretionary amount of silver is less than 15 taels. Every year, the speed at which the wallets of the landlords are deflated can be imagined.

The tenants, on the other hand, were happy. After changing to a fixed amount of land rent, landlords no longer care what they grow in the field, they can choose to grow higher value cash crops as the mainstay, supplemented by growing grain and vegetables, so that they can obtain higher incomes and not be harmed by rising prices.

Therefore, in the past ten years, the life of the landlords has become more and more miserable, but the tenants have become more and more nourished, which is why one of the two sides wants to change back to the past, and the other resolutely does not change.

It is not surprising that the gentry of the cities, who later joined the ranks of the peasants, had a long-standing contradiction with the traditional landlords, and the source of the contradiction could only exist in the economic aspect.

Industrial and commercial production requires a large number of qualified raw materials, such as the silk weaving industry needs standard raw silk, the cotton textile industry needs standard cotton, and the dyeing and weaving industry needs special cash crops.

However, in the days when rent in kind was collected, it was up to the landlords to decide what to grow in the land and what price to sell. Therefore, the essence of the contradiction between the two sides is that the industrial and commercial owners attempt to control the production and marketing of agricultural products, and the landlords are naturally unwilling to lose their pricing power, and the two sides naturally have contradictions.

However, after the change of rent in kind to monetary rent, the landlords were separated from production and no longer interfered with the peasants' planting choices. The honest peasant is always easier to deal with than the old and cunning landlord, and the industrialists and businessmen are naturally happy to see it. In this situation, they generally choose to sign contracts with farmers to provide financial and technical support, and farmers promise to sell their agricultural products to the investors at the specified price when the harvest is time.

The advantage of this is that the management can obtain stable agricultural products, and the farmers can obtain a stable income, and the end result is that the industrial and commercial owners control the market for agricultural products, and of course they are not willing to go back to the past.

In essence, this lawsuit has become a showdown between various interested parties, and the outcome of the judgment has far more impact than any other case, so that this protracted lawsuit will take place.

… One...... One...... One...... One...... One......

This article analyzes the origins of this lawsuit very thoroughly, and the most rare thing is that the author does not fall into the trap of traditional articles and moralize economic issues, but uses the perspective of economics to show the mentality of all parties, and the views are novel but justified and convincing.

Shen Mo had a strong interest in this author called "Yuchi", and he also brewed an article in his heart, and he was going to write it down and submit a manuscript later, and he should talk to this Yuchi brother.

After reading the local news that made him endlessly happy, he silently turned to the fourth chapter "Important News of the Imperial Court", which mainly introduces the latest military and political developments of the country, and excerpts part of the content of the newspaper, so that the people can understand what is happening in the country.

When he got up, Shen Mo hadn't paid attention to the court for more than a month, and when he read the newspaper, he found out that the strange Wanli Emperor had been born again......

This edition begins with the edict issued by the three emperors.

The first is an edict to the Ministry of Rites, in order to get married for a year, the internal post is not prepared, in order to seek a virtuous lady, with a wide range of heirs, specially ordered the Nanjing Ministry of Rites to stay in the capital inside and outside the list of edicts, by the Shangshu to supervise the official to visit the folk women, all those who are over 14 years old and under 16 years old, have a good appearance, are elegant in etiquette, and have no fault in their parents' net worth, they will be carefully selected from them and sent to the palace of the kings. Nanzhi, Zhejiang and other places sent officials to select.

Shen Mo remembered that in September last year, he read an edict from Zhu Yijun to his subordinates in the newspaper, "There is still a shortage of people in the palace, so the Ministry of Rites is ordered to investigate the case of Jiajing's nine years and select 200 folk ladies to enter." , the so-called case of the ninth year of Jiajing, is Wanli's grandfather, Emperor Jiajing, canonized nine concubines at one time. Wanli decided to look up to his grandfather, and the reason was good, because he encountered the same problems as Naizu, and he still had no heirs after several years of marriage. Although he is not yet twenty years old, it is a big worry for an emperor who has been married for three years.

It is precisely for this reason that the officials did not fire at the emperor for the first time, and the Ministry of Rites also took care of it, and after half a year of selection, nine flower-like girls were selected as the nine concubines of the Baili Emperor, and two hundred palace maids were added to the palace.

In this way, the Wanli Emperor has twelve legitimate glamorous wives, not including those palace maids who have had a relationship with him and have no name, Zhu Yijun can't help but be overjoyed, on the same day, he led them to sacrifice to the ancestral hall, and at the same time awarded the brocade clothes and guards to the fathers of the nine concubines, and enjoyed the earl Dai.

Less than a year after the canonization of the nine concubines, Wanli gave this edict to the Ministry of Rites, it seems that the beauties in the capital can no longer satisfy the emperor, he wants to taste the Jiangnan nuns!