As soon as the land restriction and purchase bill came out, one stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The Cabinet had just prepared the draft and brought it to the House for preliminary consultations with the senators, and the provisions of the draft, which were supposed to be in the stage of secrecy, did not go away.

Everyone in Beijing is concerned about this draft. Both the wealthy and the common people have devoted great enthusiasm to this case. For the wealthy, the land restriction order will mean that most of the land in their hands will be exceeded, and the purchase order will also mean that their fields will be expropriated by the imperial court, although it is not a forced expropriation, but the so-called land replacement law, they are not interested at all. In their view, this is the imperial court in disguised deprivation of the land that their ancestors have accumulated for generations.

Even if industry and commerce have flourished in recent years and entered the primary commodity society, after the rich people have made money, they will still spend a lot of money to buy land, even if they have to pay deed tax to buy land now, it will not stop them.

Land has a unique meaning for the Chinese people. Especially the ancestral land of my hometown is becoming more and more important. But now the imperial court wants to exchange those wastelands outside the customs and even overseas for their ancestral land, which is not a robbery.

The common people were happy, especially the tenants who did not have their own land. They are reluctant to leave their homeland and emigrate abroad, even though there is a lot of land outside the border that can be granted to them for free. But staying in his hometown and guarding the ancestral tomb and old house, it is inevitable that life is more difficult.

Especially in places such as the Three Rivers and Two Lakes and the Central Plains, there is little land and many people, and it is difficult to cultivate even if you want to share land. Fortunately, there are so many workshops and minerals and other places where they can work and earn money, but for most people, having a piece of land is the most down-to-earth, and it is the foundation of family heirlooms.

Now the imperial court wants to introduce this land restriction and purchase bill, take back the land of the rich people in the Central Plains, and exchange the land outside the customs for them. The recovered land is then leased to the people, and the people can redeem it later, how can they not support such a policy?

There has never been a bill that has aroused such heated discussions, and there are a group of supporters in the government and the opposition, from the court to the people, everyone is fighting fiercely.

In the House of Councillors, cabinet officials and senators have been debating the draft for many days, but it is difficult to reach an agreement.

Some senators believe that the court's move is a bit excessive. It is even believed that this is a chaotic government. Some senators even spoke about the current industrial and commercial development, believing that the imperial court's move would cause great harm to the emerging industrial and commercial manufacturing industry. In recent years, the imperial court has continued to expand its territory, and it is also constantly immigrating to the frontier, and a large number of people from the Central Plains have moved out, which has reduced many laborers, and after a large number of people have moved out, their original land has been recycled by the imperial court and leased to the landless people, and more laborers who had been working in factories have returned to the countryside to farm.

"A landlord's family has 1,000 acres of land, and he hires laborers to cultivate it, or rents out the land, and the number of cultivators required is far more labor-saving than if the 1,000 acres of land are divided into 100 households. The fewer cultivators, the greater the output efficiency, and at the same time, the manpower saved can also provide labor for today's industrial and commercial manufacturing industry, which is in great demand. ”

"I think the imperial court should not only not restrict land, but also encourage farm-style cultivation and production, which can reduce labor, reduce costs, and improve production efficiency. At the same time, it can also provide sufficient labor for our factory. If everyone has a field, then who will still come out to work, who will still enter the factory, and who will still go to the mine? Aren't we going back in time? If industry and commerce regress and shrink as a result, and the tax revenue of the imperial court is reduced, the consequences will be very serious! ”

"Yes, against the land restriction law!"

However, there are also many people in the Senate who support this land restriction replacement bill.

These people's concept is that if the land annexation of the Central Plains is too strong, a large number of people will be landless peasants, and if they are all factory employees, it will be very unstable and have great hidden dangers. Increasing the number of yeoman farmers can greatly improve the social stability of the Central Plains. In particular, the thirteen provinces of the Central Plains are the core places of the Han Dynasty, and these places must not be chaotic.

Stability is the first priority of development, and it is also the foundation of people's livelihood, economy, and industrial and commercial development. Without stability, there is nothing.

"Farm-style development is indeed more efficient, and because of this, I think the imperial court's replacement method is quite good. The imperial court relocated the people to the frontier, and the cost of moving a household was too high, and it was relatively difficult for ordinary people to move over, and it took a long time to stabilize. However, if the landlords were given land outside the Guan, they would be more able to reclaim the new land. ”

Some legislators immediately objected loudly, "It is true that landlords are richer and more powerful than ordinary people, but even if they have money when the land is replaced at the border gates, where can they find hired workers who reclaim the land and cultivate the land?" ”

"This is not a problem, the Japanese, the Jurchens, the Annamite, the Donghu people, etc., since these people can become workers, they can also become tenant farmers."

In the traditional agrarian society, the social structure is relatively simple and fixed, with the peasants as the main body, the industry and merchants as the supplements, and the scholars as the managers. But when the germination of capital began, society slowly shifted to a commodity society. What is the biggest difference between a commodity society and an agrarian society?

It is a large number of industrial workers who appear, and where do these industrial workers come from? Historically, this is how British sheep eat people and so on. Britain developed the textile industry, raised a large number of sheep, occupied land, and farmers lost their land. After losing their land, the peasants could only become industrial workers, who provided land and manpower for the development of the textile industry. The textile industry developed rapidly, and the pockets of the capitalists swelled, but the life of those landless industrial workers became miserable, and they were exploited and oppressed by the capitalists.

To put it bluntly, many peasants lost their means of production and became vassals of the capitalists.

In the traditional agricultural society, the number of yeoman farmers is not small, even if they are tenant farmers, their lives are relatively stable. In their hands, they have the means of production.

However, the development of agricultural society to the development of capital society, sheep eating people is an inevitable phenomenon, one is the demand for land, the other is the demand for labor. Only by seizing the land will they be able to raise more sheep, shear more wool, spin more yarn, export more textiles, and make more profits. Only when peasants lose their land can they enter the factories and become industrial workers, providing them with a large demand for labor.

If it is still in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not lose the country, there were not so many internal and external troubles and wars, according to the industrial and commercial development trajectory of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty may eventually enter this stage.

If there is no large amount of land under the expansion of foreign wars like the Han Dynasty, and there is no large number of people who have been victoriously conquered in foreign wars, then if you want to transform, you must go through the stage of sheep eating people.

But the current Han is completely different. The Han Dynasty opened up a large amount of Xinjiang territory and conquered a large number of foreign peoples, which provided the two most important things for the transformation of the Han Dynasty, land and population.

With this large amount of new land, the Han Dynasty will not only not eat people, but will also be able to alleviate the serious problems caused by land annexation. The granting of land by immigrants and the replacement of land have allowed more people to own land and regain control of the means of production, which is like a stabilizer that can greatly stop the current somewhat impetuous situation.

And with the large number of newly conquered foreigners, they brought the most needed industrial workers to the rapidly developing industry and commerce of the Han Dynasty. With these people, there is no need to force a large number of Han Chinese to convert from peasants to industrial workers.

It is precisely because of these two conditions that the Han Dynasty has developed so rapidly and so steadily, and there have not been too many fierce class contradictions.

Of course, this whole policy inevitably reflects the unfair treatment of foreigners by the Han Dynasty.

The imperial court granted land and leased land to the Han people, and fully supported them, and those who were willing to move to Shibian had various settlement fees, immigration loans, subsidies, etc., as well as free land grants. Even if they stayed in their hometowns, the imperial court was still recovering a large amount of land to rent and sell to the landlords through land restrictions and land exchanges, so that they could also own the land.

But for those conquered foreigners, it was difficult for them to even obtain the household registration of the Han Dynasty immediately. They had to move out of their hometowns and become industrial workers or tenant farmers in the Han Dynasty. Although the Han Dynasty has countless newly opened land, they do not get a single acre and a half points.

But no one spoke for them, and in the eyes of the Han people, the Han conquered them, and it was good that they didn't send them as slaves directly. Isn't it good to be a worker and a tenant farmer in Dahan now, because the work is paid and the tenant fields also have a harvest, and they will not be given a penny less.

Even in the second generation, after receiving the education of the Han Dynasty, they will be able to enter the Han nationality in the future, and the third generation will be able to enlist in the army as a soldier or an official, and then they will be a Han person, and there will be no difference.

It's just that many people don't realize it, or a few people realize it, and they won't say it out if they realize it, that after these foreigners moved to the Han Dynasty, or went to the frontier of the Han Dynasty, and became workers or tenant farmers, even if their second generation can dissolve into the Han Dynasty and enjoy the same treatment as the Han Dynasty, because their parents lost the important means of production of land, the vast majority of them can still only enter the factory to work in the mines or continue to be hired to farm, which will be an extremely difficult gap to cross.

This is also a boundary set by the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, these foreigners, and even the future New Han people, will have a transparent glass ceiling above their heads, and it is too difficult and difficult to break through this boundary. It seems that the sky is bright, but in fact, it is difficult to break through.

This kind of boundary can only take three generations, five generations, or even longer, to gradually disappear as they are more integrated into the Han people little by little.

In the long run, such a policy strengthens the interests of the Han people, but in fact, it is also accelerating the assimilation of foreign races, always maintaining the Han as the main body, and maintaining absolute internal stability.

The House of Representatives was arguing, and the government and the opposition were also talking, Liu Jun saw it in his eyes and listened to it, but he was not moved at all.

Of course, the land restriction and land replacement bill is extremely harmful to the landlords, but for the long-term stability of the empire, Liu Jun will not be soft. Liu Jun is willing to exchange a few acres outside the customs for one acre inside the customs, or even ten acres for one acre. If the law of restricting land and purchasing land can be fully implemented, then the Central Plains will be able to have millions more homesteaders, millions of homesteaders, which will be extremely helpful to the stability of the Central Plains of the imperial court.

The yeoman peasants were like the middle class of later Europe, and these people were the real foundation of the solid prosperity of the state.

Liu Jun always remembered what Mei Zhihuan said, only the hungry poor will rebel in this world. Liu Jun thinks that Mei Zhihuan is right, there are many poor people who are hungry and rebelled, and although they often fail in the end, they are the mourners of one dynasty after another.

And those nobles, rich landlords, will also rebel, but if there is no rebellion of those hungry people, it is generally more difficult for these people to rebel.

The imperial court will continue to emigrate to the frontiers, move out the people in the most remote, backward and barren places in the Central Plains, and send out those criminals. However, we will also resolutely implement this land restriction replacement bill.

If the poor can't eat, they are hungry, and they dare to do anything, let alone rebel, even the emperor dares to pull off the horse. But unless the rich are forced to retreat, they will not easily abandon their family business and rebel.

On the other hand, it's really a matter of cost. If the hungry people rebel, they don't have to think about any cost, because they will either starve to death or rebel and be killed, and the rebellion will live a few more days.

But if the rich rebel, the cost will be high, and it is difficult to match the pay and the benefit.

At the beginning, Liu Jun levied the deed tax on these rich people, which was also a layer of oil from them, and they were very dissatisfied in their hearts, but in the end, not many people really rebelled, and today is stable, not more than a few years ago, I believe that no one dares to rebel.

Moreover, the income from operating land in these years is not high, whether it is opening a factory, mining or doing trade and transportation, the income is far higher than the output of land. They are suffering a little loss now, but they can still get compensation from other places, and they will not be unable to jump over the wall because of this bill.

As for the conquered foreigners, Liu Jun was even less worried.

As long as they can live, not many people can have the courage to rebel, after all, rebellion is to kill the head. In this era, the national consciousness is not strong, what kind of national dynasty, that is what the powerful bureaucrats of the people who enjoy the benefits say, for ordinary people, can that thing be eaten?

As long as the big men give them jobs, are willing to give them a salary, and can give them food, drink and a place to live, they will be extremely satisfied.

Even if they were second-class citizens in Dahan, they wouldn't care so much. And as time passes, when their sons and grandchildren come, they may care about this, but at that time, they will gradually dissolve into the Han Dynasty and enjoy more and more rights.

"I took the lead in setting an example, all the imperial land owned by the royal family in the five capitals and thirteen provinces was replaced with overseas land, and not a single acre left was changed to official land and leased to the people." Liu Jun called the eunuch Bian Yongqing, who was in charge of the seal, and asked him to pass on his words to the cabinet. (To be continued.) )