Chapter 185: Plane Imperial Capital Tour (Part II)

Among the 241 squares in the imperial capital, Qingmenfang is a medium-sized area, and it is usually inhabited by people with a little money

This is No. 148, which is the academy, which is said to be the academy, but it is actually a repeating place for those who raise people to take the imperial examination, do not enter the school for a year, do not go back, and study again in the imperial capital

Although there are not many students in it, they are all elites, and there are a lot of books, and later, in order to make money, these people also teach and give lectures, and open private studies, so the three of them can live there and listen to courses from time to time

The three of them were sent by the empire, and their own talents were naturally not underestimated, reading here, listening to lectures, and making progress from time to time, and consciously spending half a year to make up for the differences in the doctrines of the two worlds.

The household registration of the three people has been arranged and moved to the imperial capital, but the imperial capital itself is a provincial capital, and there are talents in the imperial examination, of course, compared to the countryside, this exam is a little more difficult.

The Fengman Building at No. 145 Jia Street is a restaurant on this street, with three floors, the price is not expensive, the wine and food are very good, and it is deeply appreciated by the students and people nearby

The people in the main world, in fact, are chic and casual people in their bones, and the three of them don't learn in a good way, but the rest is more relaxed, no, today I came to the restaurant again.

The three of them walked through the door, and it was noon, and two teenagers standing in front of the building bowed and saluted: "Three guest officers, please!" ”

The first floor is full of loose tables, most of them are ordinary people, in the restaurant, there are naturally singing, playing the piano, juggling, people come and go, very lively.

The three of them smiled and went upstairs.

The second floor is a single room separated by a screen, which is relatively clean and the money spent is not very large.

As for the third floor, it is Yaxuan, which is accompanied by a special maid, and the sound of silk and bamboo is heard from time to time, and this kind of consumption is naturally completely different.

The identities and money of the three are only in the single room on the second floor, but this is exactly what the three of them want.

Seeing that Xiao Er came up, he ordered eight dishes, and asked for two pots of wine, these dishes were medium dishes, and he didn't have much time, so he sent them up, separated the screen, and the inside was clean.

Ding Zhao, Tian Tang, and Xu Xuan began to drink and eat, and Xu Xuan muttered: "The food is okay, but this wine is really expensive." ”

"There is no way, an agricultural society, most of the winemaking is grain now, the imperial court in order to control the lack of food caused by the folk winemaking, heavy taxes, private winemaking, if you just drink it for yourself, it doesn't matter, those who dare to sell their taxes are extremely heavy, and they will be exiled for three hundred miles if they evade fifteen catties of koji wine." Tian Tang said: "Moreover, the imperial capital is an important area of Gyeonggi, and since it implements the monopoly of liquor, the brewing and sales are under the jurisdiction of the imperial court's liquor warehouse, and the supervision is strict. ”

"I remember the events of the previous dynasty, saying that the commercial tax of the three southern provinces was only 20,000 taels of silver a year, and now it is really a business-heavy and tax-paying society." Ding Zhao said with emotion: "Looking at these days, I estimate that this commercial tax will account for a quarter of the imperial court's financial revenue!" ”

"Well, all walks of life are taxed differently."

The three of them didn't know that Fang Xin was from the earth, and he had deeply remembered the lessons of the Ming Dynasty.

In Fang Xin's view, Ming Taizu was wise and martial, worthy of the word Hongwu, but he was an idiot in business, which completely reflected the ignorance and narrowness of the peasants towards business.

The scale of economy and commerce, in the final analysis, is determined by the population and the level of science and technology at that time, the population of the Ming Dynasty is not less than that of the Song Dynasty, and the level of science and technology is the same, even if it is not a large sea trade, its total commercial volume is not trivial.

If you really want to say that the benefits of sea trade are in the Southern Song Dynasty, and in the Northern Song Dynasty, the proportion of industry and commerce in the national fiscal revenue has exceeded that of agriculture! During the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the annual commercial tax revenue was 19.75 million!

It is a pity that Ming Taizu probably compared commerce to farmland, and the decree he promulgated was recorded in the "History of the Ming Dynasty. Food and Goods Five", said: "All commercial taxes, thirty and take one, live a violation of the order." ”

You know, business and agriculture are different, farmland, due to the long cycle, and there are layers of exploitation, so the national tax is basically one-tenth of the normal, but commercial circulation, generally speaking, according to the industry and the scale of the difference, take 5-50 are within the normal range, Ming Taizu generalized thirty to one, it can be seen that he basically does not have much understanding of business.

The most terrible thing is not this, Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated a cheap business order on the basis of light business tax. In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Taizu ordered: "The family of the merchant is not allowed to wear cloth, but the family of the peasant is not allowed to wear yarn if there is a person who is a merchant."

In feudal society, dress represented a person's social hierarchy, and this decree reflected the contempt and severe suppression of the status of merchants by the imperial court.

This led to an essential factor that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty in the future - merchants had to take refuge in the scholar class, this situation developed to the peak after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the combination of government and business, scholars and doctors for their own interests, resolutely resist taxes, tax evasion, if the emperor wants to focus on business, is to "compete with the people for profit", is mediocre!

Jin Shang and Nanshang are actually the forces produced by the combination of the scholar class, and it is idle to sell the country and seek glory for this reason.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the development of the commodity economy and the capital economy was the first in the world.

The Ming Dynasty died in finance, in fact, it died in commercial taxes, and in the final analysis, it died in the commercial policies of the Ming Taizu era.

As for this world, because the original war was not too fierce, the agricultural harvest was not very large, and the large-scale war was almost recovered five years after it subsided, and with the recovery of agriculture, the social economy recovered quickly, with the power of Taizu, the implementation of commercial taxes, until now, the annual income of the Dafan Dynasty is 15 million yuan, 5 million yuan of salt and iron franchise, and 20 million yuan of other land and taxes, just ten years, just a tax system reform, has been more than several times richer than the previous dynasty.

The three of them are all imperial researchers, although they are still young, but they have already gained a lot insight into this, Ding Zhao sighed and said: "Such a huge profit, to promote the peace and development of the country, the burden of the people has been reduced a lot, and the six books of the Li family have gradually become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people." ”

"Yes, Li's six books are not to occupy the high point with morality, but more in the general theory of social contract, now the officials are all profit-seeking, the aristocracy has tasted the sweetness, the various chambers of commerce are flourishing, and then someone wants to deprive it, unless the aristocratic class is uprooted."

"Although the empire does not allow the advent to teach technology, but for profit, the technology itself is in progress, and I think the day of breakthrough is not far off - I heard that the south has now invented the erection of the loom, not by us, but by the indigenous nature."

Erecting a loom, on earth is the Jenny loom.

The horizontally placed putting hammer became vertically erected, using several vertical spindles side by side, an invention dozens of times more efficient than the old loom machine, and was regarded by Engels as "the first invention to radically change the condition of the British worker".

- This is actually not uncommon, on the earth, in the Kangxi year of the Qing Dynasty, someone invented a simple machine gun, but it was immediately eliminated by the government, and his people were exiled.

"It's still a little worse, mathematics and basic knowledge are not rich, although the imperial court has announced that the imperial examination also has mathematical content on the grounds that Confucius is the six arts, mathematics is in it, but it still can't support a direct breakthrough within a hundred years, but practically, Mr. Fang's reform, strictly speaking, is not big, but in this simple deployment, so that the social forces will automatically produce a breakthrough, it really has a bit of a good fighter without outstanding achievements."

Xu Xuan said with emotion: "The nobles basically withdrew from the official career, this is the result of the efforts of the courtiers, Mr. Fang just complied with the requirements of Shilin, after all, only the founding heroes withdrew from the imperial court in a big way, Shilin can take the throne, which seems to outsiders, it seems that all the people of Shilin are promoted for their official positions, not Mr. Fang is mean and unkind, crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, and this is exactly what Mr. Fang meant, and therefore won the cheers of Shilin, and the wise and benevolent hat flew straight up. ”

"Yes, Mr. Fang made a helpless look and responded to Shilin's request, but on the one hand, he gave the meritorious man a high lord, and gave him a trading company and a mine to compensate the nobles, and the nobles also felt that Mr. Fang had not forgotten his old ministers, and any suspicions rushed to Shilin, and he also added the wise and benevolent hat to Mr. Fang."

"Today's situation is that the aristocracy retreats to business, and the scholars control the government, but they profit from commercial taxes, and the two have a common foundation for confrontation, and then there is the guidance of the sentence 'the beneficiary, the benevolence is great', and the soil for the breakthrough of the whole society has been initially available."

"Well, in the future, the emperor and Qingliu will not be able to change if they want to, after all, they are facing a powerful aristocratic class, and it is also necessary for their own government to maintain." Ding Zhao nodded and said.

After the three of them finished speaking, there was a silence, and after a while, Ding Zhao said again: "We will stay here for more than ten years, let's carefully record the social outlook, I believe that there are many people like us, as for now, let us enjoy this world." ”

By the time we finished eating and drinking, it was already afternoon.

The three of them walked out of the hotel and stepped onto the long street, which was lined with shops from all walks of life, in addition to selling local goods and department stores, other treasures were also available, and pedestrians rubbed shoulders with each other.

Walking on the neat streets paved with blue bricks and stone slabs, the three of them let go of their arms with the intention of drinking, and looked around, feeling the prosperity of this imperial capital.

"It's really prosperous, if there is any more maritime trade, it will be truly unbelievable." The three of them walked as they walked, chattering.

"It's basically impossible, this world is now exploring, investigating to the extreme of the grassland, where it is still the ocean, the ocean on all sides, and indeed within the four seas."

"Are there any other continents beyond the ocean?"

"Probably not, this is a world determined by civilization, and there should be no other continents without special reasons."

"Whatever, the imperial examination will be held in the fall, and if you get the Xiucai, you should have a new harvest when you meet the county lord of the Xiao family."

The three of them continued to move forward, and saw that the imperial capital was at the foot of the Son of Heaven, and the traffic points were all garrisoned by small-scale soldiers and sentry posts. Although it does not interfere with pedestrians, it can immediately control the entire city as soon as it is ordered—this is the jurisdiction of the Nine Gate Admiral's Palace.