In the last article, I talked about the foreign trade politics of the Ming Dynasty and its cause and effect: the financial crisis caused by the "silverization of money" and imported inflation led to the death of the Ming Dynasty due to financial exhaustion.

It stands to reason that a region, country, or dynasty should be able to profit from large-scale foreign trade and become rich and powerful, but this was not the case in the Ming Dynasty, because the "Tumubao Change" and the rise of the "Song and Ming Dynasty Theory" made the Ming people, bureaucrats, and even vassal states doubt the ability of the imperial court.

As a result, after the sharp decline in the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, the northern border troubles, the invasion of the Japanese and the disputes between friends continued to consume the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, so that even if the Ming Dynasty reopened the "sea ban" in the middle and late periods, it was not the central court that benefited, but the local "bureaucratic capital" dominated by "compradors" and "generalists", followed by private capital such as "celebrities". As a result, when the imperial court's finances could not make ends meet, the local officials colluded with the ministers and officials of the court and the central government to protect each other and stop the government.

However, that was only something that happened in other parallel time and space, in this time and space, due to the intervention of the carpenter's family, which affected the "reincarnation of heaven", it also led to the wheel of history being moving in different directions, especially after a large amount of gold and silver treasures were injected into the treasury, the Ming Dynasty changed the sky.

Seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming, and the Beijing city industry of the Ming Dynasty, which was originally razed to the ground by the "natural disaster", was invested by the "immortal family" regardless of the cost, and the money was piled up as it was, that is to say, in less than half a year, the Ming Dynasty used a large amount of money to deploy the power of the whole country and rebuild the imperial capital Beijing!

Of course, this is also indispensable for the "fairy family" to contribute from it, such as transporting building materials and important materials such as grain and grass, ordnance, after all, the "fairy family" can fly away and even travel thousands of miles a day, and occasionally do some errands can not help but feel troublesome, but feel fun, especially the sisters of the urging family.

So, in the early morning of the second month of the lunar month, Emperor Chongzhen took Empress Zhou to go to the early court, followed by eight other concubines, and the location was still in the renovated "Qianqing Palace". And the courtiers have also taken on a new look after being screened by the "Apocalypse Big Bang", except for the border generals, everything else has changed.

At this time, most of the six Shangshu were replaced, because the old guys before were either killed and injured by "high-altitude throwing objects", or died due to excessive fright, or returned to their hometowns due to exhaustion. At this time, the secretary of the household department was replaced by Ni Yuanlu, the secretary of the criminal department was replaced by Xu Shiqi, the secretary of the military department was replaced by Zhang Guowei, the secretary of the ministry was replaced by Zheng Sanjun, Zhou Yanru and Lin Ruzhu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites was still Xu Guangqi, and the secretary of the Ministry of Industry was to be determined.

Of course, since most of the books of the military department are "part-time", Wang Qia and Chen Xinjia are currently jointly presiding over the affairs of the military department, and the official positions of the generals guarding the border remain unchanged. These generals mainly include Yuan Chonghuan, Cao Wenzhao, Sun Chengzong, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Zu Dashou and others. However, these generals could not leave the front without permission without receiving the emperor's order, otherwise they would be arrested and imprisoned for "great disrespect" by the factory and health secret services, and then impeached by the "speech officials".

"Emperor-up-on-drive-arrive!" With the scream of the celebrant and the prince like a duck, Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou, that is, the eight concubines, were late in riding the dragon and phoenix jade chariot and the chariot. However, the emperors, empresses, and concubines here are not real beings, but their respective "soul clones".

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live! Niang Chitose Chitose Chitose! - "All the secretaries are flat!" "Giggles, all Aiqing, get up quickly. ”

"Thank you, Emperor, Niangniang!" After the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty knelt down in a tsunami, they all stood up straight, thinking to themselves that this emperor Lao Tzu didn't know what was going on? Not long after he canonized the "National Teacher", this emperor Lao Tzu always likes to wait for women to go to court? If you just sit with the queen, it's okay, but just move all the concubines to the court in one go, which is obviously a bit unusual, after all, the court is where the government is discussed, not the harem?

"Ladies and gentlemen, what can be played directly, I listen to you!" Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen looked around the hall and saw the ministers of civil and military affairs standing in a row according to their ranks, and couldn't help laughing: "Today's court is much more lively than before the 'natural disaster' came, after all, there are fewer old faces and more new faces." ”

"Your Majesty, the ministers have a book!" Ni Yuanlu, the head of the household department, stepped out of the column with the morning reveel in his hand, bowed down and said: "Since Weichen became the 'head of the household department', he has checked the world register collected by the household department, and there are currently about 23.45 million households, and there are about 50 million people in Dingkou, only adult men, not widows, widows, women, and children. If the people's 'per capita tax' is exempted, it is equivalent to the exemption of the "three rings", and the imperial court will definitely collect 20 million taels of silver less this year, and the treasury will suffer a huge loss! ”

Because the European Age of Discovery has been open for more than 100 years, and the European colonizers brought high-yield crops such as corn (bud grain), sweet potato/artichoke (potato), tomato (tomato) and other high-yield crops from the Americas, plus the sweet potato (sweet potato) brought back from the Philippines by the father and son of a Chinese merchant surnamed Chen, the people will not starve.

As a result, some scholars in later generations estimated that the peak of household registration in the Ming Dynasty appeared in the late Ming Dynasty according to historical yearbooks, but different scholars have different opinions on the specific time and population, because with the foreign high-yield cold-tolerant and cold-tolerant crops were vigorously promoted by the imperial court, many people were fed.

Therefore, Yi Zhongtian believes that the population at the end of the Ming Dynasty was more than 60 million; Zhao Wenlin and Xie Shujun believe that the Ming Dynasty reached its peak population in 1626, and the actual population was about 100 million; Wang Yumin believes that the population of the Ming Dynasty reached its peak during the Wanli period, and the actual population was between 130 million and 150 million;

He Bingdi believes that the actual population of the Ming Dynasty in 1600 AD reached 150 million; Ge Jianxiong believes that in 1600, the Ming Dynasty had about 197 million people, and speculated that in 1655, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to various disasters caused by the change of dynasties, there was a population bottom of about 120 million;

Cao Shuji believes that around 1630, the Ming Dynasty reached its peak population, with an actual population of about 192.51 million, while the actual population in 1644 was about 152.47 million, while the Western British economist Angus Madison believes that the actual population of the Ming Dynasty in 1600 was about 160 million.

However, the world historians believe that it is about 120 million, because the official statistics of the Ming Dynasty cannot count the population that was concealed by the gentry, and the people of the Ming Dynasty in order to avoid the "poll tax", they took the initiative to attach themselves to the gentry and could not pay taxes to the state, so the population is very different from the official statistics, and only men.

During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the treasury was empty and the financial resources were stretched, but the internal and external troubles continued, so the taxes had to be levied as a last resort to cope with the current situation. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the most famous tax increase was the "three salaries", which were "Liao Salary", "Suppression Salary" and "Training Salary", what exactly does it mean? You can get a glimpse of it from the name.

"Liaoyu" was naturally added to deal with the war in Liaodong, which began in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and the land tax per mu of land was "nine cents"; "Suppression" was added in order to complete the suppression of the peasant uprising; "Training salary" is for the purpose of training soldiers and additional distribution, in addition to the "Liao salary", the other two "salary" are set up in the Chongzhen period.

The three "salaries" were increased, which provided nearly 20 million taels of silver for the Ming Dynasty government every year, but it did not save the Ming Dynasty, but intensified the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

There is not much of a problem with the three "salaries" in itself, because in ancient times, in order to cope with the war, all dynasties would ask for more taxes from the people, but the problem of the Ming Dynasty was that there were too few tax objects, except for poor peasants and some urban poor, only some small traders were suitable for taxation.

According to the setting of the Wanli period, the "Liao salary" was levied "nine cents" per mu of land, that is, nine thousandths of the original tax was levied on the original tax amount, which did not seem to be much, according to the amount of land in the country at that time, the official set that the annual Liao salary needed to be levied a fixed amount of 5.2 million taels of silver for the war in Liaodong.

Of course, in the process of implementation, the government at all levels under the imperial court took into account the problems of land waste, and the actual expropriation was expected to be much less.

However, it should be known that the taxation was limited to small yeoman farmers, small landlords, and small traders, and not large landlords, wealthy people, scholars with meritorious reputations, officials at all levels and their families, and clan vassal kings. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, land annexation was serious, and the main annexors were bureaucrats, emperors, and clans.

For the situation of the bureaucracy's annexation of land, please refer to Xu Jue, the first assistant of the cabinet of the Jiajing Dynasty, because after Xu Jue retired, he bought a large amount of land in his hometown Songjiang, and the amount of land annexed reached 20,000 mu! The vassal king was even worse, and the younger brother of the Wanli Emperor, King Lu, annexed 40,000 acres of land! Zhu Changxun, the son of Emperor Wanli, annexed 20,000 acres of land! The amount of land annexed by these two people alone has reached 60,000 acres, not to mention that all the princes combined are even more!

The emperor's annexation of land mainly relied on the construction of the so-called "imperial village", that is, the land was cultivated by people and the rent was handed over to the emperor. Therefore, although the actual amount of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty was quite large, the real tax was greatly reduced. However, what should I do if I don't have enough money to spend the annual target?

Thinking about it, the imperial court can only evenly distribute the amount of land that cannot be expropriated to the landowners who can be expropriated, which is the "one whip law" invented by Prime Minister Zhang Ju. Because of this, the actual amount of tax borne by each taxable object is far greater than the "nine percent"!

What's even worse is that the land annexation also includes concealment, because after Zhang Juzheng's reform, the Ming Dynasty measured the land of the whole country and recorded it into a book, indicating that the ownership belongs to the imperial court.

As for minority areas and areas where troops will be stationed, it is not appropriate to enforce them for the time being. However, with the deepening of land annexation, the progress of the revision of the atlas has not kept up, or because some landlords have bribed the county officials in order to pay less taxes, and deliberately did not change them, so as to achieve the goal of tax evasion.

As a consequence of this, some peasants became tenant farmers, but their original land was still registered in their names, so they continued to pay taxes to the imperial court. Not only that, but they also had to pay rent to the landlord when they became tenant farmers, usually around 50% of the harvest.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty government's abacus played very well, and the "nine cents" were not much, and the common people should be able to bear it. However, the actual amount of apportionment is far greater than "nine percent" or even as high as "a few cents." If they cannot pay their debts, they will be "rolled over with profits" and sold their property, so that the people can no longer bear it.

As a result, the people are overwhelmed, and there is basically no way to live except for selling their sons and daughters and selling themselves. What's more, in the northwest region, there has been a drought for many years, and the people can't even pay the taxes before the increase, let alone after the increase, and the court is forced to collect it, so there is no way, so I can only fuck it!

During the Chongzhen period, the people's patience had reached a "critical point", but the imperial court had to collect "salary" and "training salary", plus the tax must be paid with "silver" instead of grain and cloth, and the people could only sell it cheaply to pay back the money, so they couldn't survive, so the people's rebellion intensified, and Li Zicheng's subordinates became more and more.

But the imperial court can't help it, because since the Han and Tang dynasties, the foreign trade has been carried out, coupled with the "foreign trade income" of the Song and Yuan dynasties and the current dynasty, so that the currency of the Ming Dynasty has been completely "silverized".

Although the imperial court can receive nearly 20 million silver every year, the utilization rate is very low, because it has to go through layers of deductions, and there will be a lot of losses (shrinkage) when it is smelted in the furnace, and only a handful of it can be used on the right path, and most of them go into the private pockets of officials at all levels.

Don't have enough money? Keep adding! After the addition, the officials continued to be greedy, and they still acted as if they had nothing to do, and even felt that they were doing things for the imperial court, which should be taken for granted! In this way, the credit relationship between the court and the common people collapsed, forming an endless circle, where it seemed that the money was collected too much, but it was never enough.

The Ming Dynasty was dragged to death like this! Therefore, some experts and scholars say that the Ming Dynasty died in what "Xiaoice River"? That's actually an excuse, if the imperial court can let the princes of the Zhu family grab less land, but if it can strictly restrain the corruption of officials, then how can the Ming Dynasty die?

Therefore, the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and even the demise of the feudal dynasties in Chinese history, were completely self-inflicted, and they did not deserve sympathy at all! This is the reason why the so-called "Chinese feudal dynasty cannot jump out of the 300-year cycle rate", after all, "the economic base determines the superstructure", and the gap between the rich and the poor is too big!

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Haha, thank you for your attention, collection, recommendation, subscription and review of this book! As an author, I am very happy and honored to provide readers with a novel that meets the needs of the general public. As the saying goes, "Life is short, but the tip of the pen is slender." "Therefore, the road to cultivation is long, where to find immortality? There is nowhere to go for troubles, and read the people in the book! I hope that the novel "Heaven and Earth Let Me Go" series can bring happiness and insight to everyone!

This story is pure fiction, if there are similarities, it is a coincidence! Friends, the part-time job is hard, the time is urgent, the creation is not easy, like the collection, by the way, forward, want to know the plot? Next time I break it down! ("The book has its own golden house?") There are thousands of bells in the book? There is Yan Ruyu in the book"? Welcome to my book)