In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, various harsh policies were issued one after another. Chief among them is the apportionment of a variety of exorbitant taxes. And these exorbitant taxes are, most importantly, used for military spending. All kinds of wars and rebellions, large and small, not only cost human lives, but also require a lot of money. The essence of this bad reality is that the people live in extreme poverty and social wealth is extremely scarce.

After the Manchus came to control China, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, and of course, to alleviate all kinds of difficulties faced by society, the first thing it did was to abolish and reduce all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes. The purpose of exempting the people from exorbitant taxes is to give the people a chance to breathe, so that the people can survive in the first place.

From the entry of the Manchurians to the Kangxi and Qianlong eras, after a long period of recuperation, the country's financial situation gradually improved, and the people's lives were basically comfortable. It is conjectured that the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty must have caused a large number of deaths, and the result of this death was a sharp decline in the population of the entire society. It is clear that the rulers of the Qing court were aware of the seriousness of the population problem and the importance of population in the development of society. Regarding the incentive policy of increasing the population, that is, for the newly born, the government will definitely not increase the corresponding endowment. In addition, on a national scale, the Qing court generally exempted the whole world from taxes two or three times, which was a very vigorous, very difficult, and very bold move. The writer of history went so far as to exclaim that such a move was unprecedented.

Since Daoguang and Xianfeng, the previously closed maritime trade has been opened. The opening of ports, shipping, and sea routes was not voluntarily carried out by the Qing court, but was mostly achieved through gun bombardment, armed aggression, and threats of extortion. During this period, it was also a time when the country changed one after another. In the process of opening up maritime trade, the domestic commercial trade market, concepts, and models have been seriously challenged, and the road to increasing the country's wealth has been blocked. At the same time, in response to the changes in the current situation, the country has spent a lot of human life and wealth, and there are countless places to spend money. The most odious thing is that those in power simply cannot see the situation at that time, and their judgment of the future situation is also a mush. This kind of result is that when we are not able to measure our strength and have no accurate deduction, we will casually start the war. War meant that the money of the government treasury was dissipated like snow. These large and small internal and external wars, the silver accumulated in the government treasury, and the grain stored in the official warehouse, did not take long to disappear. What is even more odious is the huge compensation after the defeat, according to statistics, this alone is as high as more than 400 trillion (it should be 400 million taels). It is said that if the income of the Qing court was used to pay off the debts, these war reparations would not be repaid for decades.

In order to solve the financial dilemma, the Qing government, like all rulers in the past and subsequent dynasties, naturally started with the first target of the people under its rule, and the method was nothing more than to increase taxes, apportion various types of donations, salaries, servitudes, and other harsh forced levies to oppress the people. In addition, it is to implement a series of measures to boost national strength:

1. Change the transportation to sea transportation to reduce transportation costs;

2. Change the previous monetary system and implement the national currency;

3. Implement salt administration and management and increase fiscal revenue;

4. Mining of minerals in order to increase financial resources;

In addition to the above, measures such as the construction of railways, the change of postal services, the establishment of an electricity authority, and the opening up of maritime shipping have also been adopted.

The planning of this series of new policies has only one purpose, that is, to increase fiscal revenue. However, there is no in-depth study and comprehension of the basic common sense of a rich country and a strong people that has existed since ancient times, that is, it is necessary to achieve "more people engaged in production and fewer people who consume; The speed of production is fast, the rate of consumption is slow". Thinking about the peace period of the three dynasties of antiquity, those rulers still knew that once the masses were in poverty, then you would not be able to sit in this world for long, and thousands of years later, they would even forget this truth, which is really sad.

That's the summary.