Chapter Eighty-Three: The Financial Problems of the Ming Dynasty

There is a gap between the government and the people.

There are more than 10,000 Ming officials in total. When the people of the Ming Dynasty were the largest, some people speculated that there were as many as four or five billion people, how could such a small number of officials manage so many people. Even the Ming officials expanded a hundredfold. It doesn't necessarily mean that you can control everyone.

Officials must not expand. Because if it expands, the poor financial system of the Ming Dynasty will not be able to support it at all.

This becomes a problem. Between the government and the people, there is a layer of agents.

And Zhu Yuanzhang saw too much of the corrupt officials in the Yuan Dynasty who harmed the people, and felt that the power of officials should be restricted. so that they cannot eat the people. So the grain chief system came out.

In essence, the grain chief system wants to select the virtuous among the people. Manage some affairs in place of the government. Zhu Yuanzhang regarded the grain chief as the representative of the people, and even escorted the grain chief into Beijing every year. Zhu Yuanzhang had to choose some to meet in person and ask about the people's lives.

and even meet talented people among them. He was also transferred to the government. There was even a person who jumped to the head of the household.

But is this system really good?

In other words, there are certainly many things that are not good things for Ming officials. Those who are as greedy as Guo Huan, although they are in the minority. But many officials may not be innocent. But are these grain chiefs good people?

Just one point, many people who are grain chiefs only don't encounter any misfortunes. have become big families. In the township of the tyrannical people.

Even in the late Ming Dynasty, the local government did not negotiate with the large private households, and many things could not be implemented. Maybe it doesn't have this origin.

It's hard to say whether Zhu Yuanzhang's thinking is right or not. After all, even in later generations, it is difficult for the government to maintain the governance of the countryside. Even after 2000, many village governments were withdrawing. Some powerful people in the civil society have replaced the previous government functions in churches everywhere.

This is also a cost-based consideration.

Zhu Yuanzhang is very affectionate about the grain chief system. In fact, the implementation of the grain chief system in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang is not too wrong. He heard He Xi talk about the problem of the grain chief system, and he had some opinions in his heart, but he didn't show it, and said, "Let's talk about the point." ”

He Xi said: "Your Majesty, the ministers have already been in the Ming Dynasty's financial chaos, and the central balance is too small. There are not many local finances, and the rules and regulations are too dead. It is not conducive to local development, and the minister believes that a three-level financial system should be established. At the county level, at the provincial level, and at the central level. Stipulate that all levels of taxation shall be intercepted, and the central and local taxes shall be divided. Gather the wealth of the world in the center. and then distributed. ”

"As for some grain transshipment allocations. The civil movement was changed to the official movement, which was also the reform of the Qing court in later generations. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Do you know how big the consumption of grain transportation is? ”

"In terms of 100 miles, it will cost about one or two percent. In terms of thousands of miles, it costs about one pound to transport one pound. And that's not even a difficult place. If it is thousands of miles away, it can be transported to one catty if it is consumed several times. ”

"The Ming tax is grain."

"If it goes your way. After some tossing, it is necessary to levy more than three times the tax in order to supply and consume. ”

"The people can't afford it."

He Xi said: "Your Majesty, this is a bad word. Since it is so hard to transport grain. So after His Majesty turned to the People-Movement, this consumption will not be there? No, His Majesty can't see it. With the branch transportation routes demarcated by His Majesty, the sum up, of course, is better than the grain being transferred to the center, and then the center has to be allocated. But His Majesty didn't know that the consumption of centralized transportation and centralized storage was much smaller than that of scattered transportation for the people. ”

"Is it big or small. It's hard to say. ”

"And there's no need to transport all the food to the central storage. You can set up warehouses in critical places. It is directly managed by the Ministry of Households, and can also be used for remote provinces. Less loss to Beijing. What's more, it can be discounted. His Majesty has also seen history. In fact, Zhang Juzheng's reform is actually a change in grain discounting. ”

"There's always a way."

"And the biggest problem with His Majesty's fiscal policy is that the imperial court has no way to change it. Because of the pull of a hair and move the whole body. Only His Majesty can make changes to the whole. And it was the magistrates and even the common people who found the problem. It is difficult for the people to feed back the things at the bottom to the center. Therefore, as time goes by, even if the people sell their sons and daughters because of the hardships of transshipment, they don't know about it. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang has a lot of ideas, which are very advanced.

The Ming Dynasty's finances are in chaos like a spider's web. Even grain that goes down to a certain township has to be transported to a certain military camp. Generally speaking, the long transit time of grain will not exceed 200 miles. for the sake of the people.

Seems good. But it's hard to adjust.

After all, after the Jingjing, Jingying was transferred to Beijing. Many of Nanjing's Beijing health centers also went to Beijing. In the past, some people in Nanjing transported grain to the barracks in Beijing, but it was only one or two hundred miles. That's a few days. It's not hard.

However, when the camp arrived in Beijing, the people from these places had to be transported to Beijing. That's more than 2,000 miles.

It can be said that the cost of the road is already several times that little food.

This problem has not been solved until later.

Why don't you follow this principle and transport the counties near Beijing to Jingying?

The problem is that each of these counties has its own problems, the grain of this county is paid to the border pass, and the grain of this county is paid to the palace. Wait a minute. As soon as this side moves, the grain at the border will have to be rearranged. More mobilization is needed to arrange food for border crossings.

Almost up, moving one place, you have to implicate many places. And it's all about interests.

As long as there is a move, some people will make profits and some people will lose, and when it comes to the issue of interests, everyone will fight for it in the slightest.

In the end, it was found that solving the problems of these counties near Nanjing required the local government to pay the price. Who wants to? Who wouldn't want to?

Therefore, unless the emperor himself intervenes. Otherwise, it won't work.

Actually, in terms of ideas. Although Zhu Yuanzhang's fiscal policy has certain problems, it cannot be said that it is not a solution. But the problem is that the fault tolerance is too low to be modified. It is both rigid and dogmatic, and wasteful.

Yes. Zhu Yuanzhang has been dealing with government affairs day and night tonight, and these details are important. It's also a lot of concern. But what will happen in the future?

In many cases, Ming officials talk about the ancestral system, and there is no way. Take the financial system as an example, when the financial system of the Ming ancestral system collapsed, the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty was consistent with the Ming court.

Until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to say that a complete financial system was built.

During the Kangxi period, the three feudatories were in turmoil. As a source of finance, the entire south was caught in the flames of war, and how did the Kangxi court continue the war?

It was because at that time, the Ministry of Household Affairs abolished the Zhu Yuanzhang model in the Ming system, but ordered all local taxes to be dissolved, and the right to open up payments was all attributed to the Ministry of Households. Although such a maximum suppression of local finances will have great drawbacks. But Kangxi prepared enough military spending. As a result, the Qing Dynasty finance and the Ming Dynasty finance went in two directions.

The Qing Dynasty's finances have been more than 30 million taels, which is a figure that the Ming Emperor could not imagine. Although the Qing Dynasty paid more taxes than the Ming Dynasty, the price of silver was also lower. But the Ming Dynasty's finances should not have dried up to millions of taels.

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time. He Xi's words hit him hard.

Zhu Yuanzhang's principles in finance. It was never that the imperial court had excessive taxes, but that it deliberately reduced the finances in all aspects. Maintain a government with low consumption. So as to give the people low taxes. This is also Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention.

Because of the tyrannical expropriation, Zhu Yuanzhang himself has a painful experience.

It's just that Zhu Yuanzhang never thought of it. He painstakingly built this financial system, which was so unbearable in He Xi's eyes.

In fact, there is something unusual about He Xi's set of three-level finances. Most of the Tang and Song dynasties did this before. However, it is not necessarily level three. It's all collected layer by layer, and then layer by layer.

But Zhu Yuanzhang knew better than He Xi that every time the bureaucracy made an extra hand, there would be a layer of waste. This kind of collection comes up from the locality, and then the center goes down. The waste is very, very staggering.

The geese have plucked their feathers. This is no lie.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't have nothing to do by himself, he wanted to create a financial system by himself. It's targeted.

He Xi saw that Zhu Yuanzhang did not react, and the more he talked, the more energetic he became. After all, in He Xi's opinion, Daming is okay in other aspects, although the health system is crotch-pulling, it can be used. Needless to say, the civil service system could be used almost completely unchanged by the Qing Dynasty. It proved to be quite successful. Only the Ming Finance, that doesn't say much, it's all tears.

He Xi continued: "There is another major problem in the Ming Dynasty's finances, that is, the problem of treasure money. Your Majesty, how many taels of treasure money are equal to one tael of silver? Do you know? ”

"I don't know anyway. I found in Hangzhou that the ratio of Hangzhou treasure banknotes is different from that of Nanjing treasure banknotes, and it is probably the least valuable Nanjing treasure banknotes, and the more remote places the more expensive. ”

"On the one hand, scarcity is expensive. There are too many treasure money in Nanjing. And there are few treasures in remote places. ”

"On the other hand, the people of Nanjing no longer believe in treasure money. And the people in remote places have not seen it much, and they still believe in the imperial court. But in the future, it is estimated that even remote places will not believe in treasure money. ”

"The minister estimates that in the next few years, the treasure money will probably fall below 100 to 200 compared to silver."

Zhu Yuanzhang shouted and said, "They dare? ”

He Xi said: "It's not a question of daring or not. It is the law of economic operation. Instead of taking the interests of multiple individuals as the transfer, the imperial court can force one person and two people to suffer. But we can't force everyone in the world to suffer. ”

"Your Majesty, the treasure banknote is not printed like this, why doesn't Your Majesty learn the method of the Southern Song Dynasty treasure banknote. Why do you want to learn the treasure money of the Yuan Dynasty? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed for a long time and said, "Why don't you know what you said? It's just that in the world, how many people are proficient in the method of treasure money? I just want to be self-sufficient in the treasury without harming the people. ”

He Xi was stunned for a moment, and sighed in his heart. Zhu Yuanzhang's economic attainments are much worse than his political and military achievements.