That evening, in addition to three official documents regarding the transfer of silver from Beijing, Zhu Ping'an was assigned to draft more than ten other official documents, all of which were to implement the spirit of the court meeting tonight.
Because the matter was urgent, these official documents had to be printed and distributed to the authorities early that morning, so Zhu Ping'an worked overtime until late at night. Only then was he able to drag his tired body and lie down on the small bed in the low duty hut.
This is the second night in a row that he has worked overtime, and each time he worked until around the early morning. Zhu Ping'an was so tired that he didn't even want to move a finger.
However, although he was extremely sleepy and tired, Zhu Ping'an just couldn't fall asleep while lying in bed.
Although it was late at night, the low guardhouse was still as hot as a steamer. It must be about to rain, as it was extremely hot inside and outside the guardhouse.
Not only is it hot, it's also noisy.
Outside the Zhilu, the frogs in the rice fields opened up by Emperor Jiajing croaked incessantly, and the cicadas on the tree trunks chirped incessantly. The croaking and chirping sounds were like a duet, one after another, and covering your ears was of no use.
Why are there so many frogs and cicadas in the palace? Zhu Ping'an lay on the bed speechless and couldn't fall asleep.
After finally falling asleep, Zhu Ping'an was awakened by a nightmare. In the dream, there was a family whose family was destroyed because of the increase in taxes on silver from the capital. Before jumping into the well, the hostess cursed the official who printed the document miserably.
Breaking into a cold sweat.
It's too real.
Zhu Ping'an now closed his eyes, and those scenes appeared before his eyes. The desperate and miserable look of the hostess seemed as if it really happened.
Why
Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but get up from the bed, sit in front of the window in the dark, looking at the long night outside the window, and become dazed.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was already a dilapidated giant ship in the ocean, and it was showing signs of capsizing in a hundred years.
The current empty treasury is a microcosm of a financial crisis. The direct cause of the Ming Dynasty's overthrow was not so much the peasant uprising as the financial crisis.
The financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty was like opening Pandora's box.
Because of the financial crisis
Therefore, when natural disasters and famines occurred, the Ming Dynasty did not have the financial resources to provide disaster relief, which led to the Ming Dynasty's lack of credibility and the people of Jilin Province rebelled in order to survive.
Therefore, there was a shortage of military pay, which led to insufficient weapons and equipment, recruitment and training, and the Ming army's combat effectiveness declined. It also suffered a series of failures in foreign wars and internal rebellions. In addition, the lack of military pay also led to mutinies and rebellions among many soldiers.
The financial crisis gave rise to refugees and mutinous soldiers, leading to a series of domestic uprisings and rebellions that grew in strength.
The financial crisis resulted in the Ming army's lack of combat effectiveness, making it unable to quell domestic rebellions or eliminate foreign invasions.
This vicious cycle lasted for more than a hundred years. By the time of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty, which was already riddled with holes, finally capsized.
At this moment, Zhu Ping'an could hardly imagine that the Ming Dynasty, the most developed and prosperous country in the world, would have fallen into such a financial crisis.
It was such a huge empire, with more than one billion acres of arable land, a population of nearly 300 million, hugely developed industry and commerce, the emergence of the sprouts of capitalism, and more than two-thirds of the world's industrial output.
However, its tax revenue was not enough to meet its administrative operations and arm its troops of hundreds of thousands.
The invasion of tens of thousands of troops by Altan Khan of the Northern Hu made the northern border of the empire like a sieve, full of holes.
This is unbelievable.
Such tax revenue is too abnormal.
Is there something wrong with the tax system
Yes, but not entirely.
You have to know that when the Ming Dynasty was first founded, during the reign of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty did not have as much arable land as it does now, its population was not as large, and its industry and commerce were not as developed as they are now. However, the tax revenue at that time was more than enough to meet the operation of this huge empire, whether it was large-scale construction projects, large-scale foreign wars, or disaster relief.
After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he launched several northern expeditions and forced the Mongols into exile in Europe. During the reign of his son, Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di, he launched numerous foreign military campaigns, with an army of 500,000 men leading five northern expeditions against Mongolia and hundreds of thousands of men leading repeated southern expeditions to Vietnam. He also built the Forbidden City and carried out large-scale construction projects in Mount Wudang. The famous Zheng He also made seven voyages to the West, but there was no financial crisis.
You know, the taxation system of the Ming Dynasty has basically remained unchanged since its founding.
Why is it that although cultivated land has increased, population has increased, and industry and commerce have developed, the taxes collected according to the taxation system since the founding of the country cannot meet the needs of the empire's operations, leading to a financial crisis
Zhu Ping'an, who comes from modern times, knows the reason very well.
But, unfortunately, not many people in the Ming Dynasty know this. Of course, some people may have seen it, but due to various reasons, perhaps they are worried, or perhaps they know the cause but have no solution, so they don’t say it out.
Those who attended the court meeting tonight were either cabinet ministers or ministers of various ministries, but the several measures proposed in the court meeting tonight were only temporary solutions and did not address the root cause.
Moreover, some measures, such as sending silver to Beijing, are only temporary solutions in the short term, but will not be worth the cost in the long run.
One of the biggest problems facing the Ming Dynasty now is the serious problem of land annexation.
Land annexation was too serious in the Ming Dynasty. Although there was more and more arable land, the owners of the land became fewer and fewer. The arable land of the Ming Dynasty was increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people.
The royal family's imperial farms set a bad precedent. As soon as Zhu Houzhao, the cousin of Emperor Jiajing, ascended the throne, he set up seven imperial farms. Later, more than 30 imperial farms were established one after another. The amount of cultivated land in the imperial farms far exceeded that of previous dynasties.
The royal family, bureaucrats and gentry were also unwilling to lag behind.
To be disrespectful, he is not very clear about how much land his teacher Xu Jie owns now, but Zhu Ping'an knows that when Xu Jie was the Prime Minister, he occupied 240,000 acres of fertile land in Su Song's hometown and had tens of thousands of tenants; and the current Prime Minister Yan Song owns countless arable land in Jiangxi, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places.
According to the information Zhu Ping'an has read in modern times, about half of the fertile land within a thousand miles around the capital of the Ming Dynasty belonged to the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry after the land annexation.
Land was highly concentrated among the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry.
You have to know that most of these land annexers belonged to the privileged class of the Ming Dynasty. According to the tax system, they had privileges.
The royal family, princes, relatives by marriage, and meritorious officials enjoyed the privilege of exemption from taxes and corvée labor; the families of officials were all exempted from corvée labor; retired officials "returned to their families and had nothing to do with them for the rest of their lives"; in addition to being exempted from labor service themselves, students were also exempted from having two men in their household.
There were also landless people who became their tenants and, under their protection, were exempted from performing state duties.
Therefore, there is more arable land, more population, but less taxation.
The original taxation system of the Ming Dynasty could not cope with facts such as land annexation.
The Single Whip Reform of Zhang Juzheng in the future was a better way to improve the taxation system than the current one, and it restored some vitality to the Ming Dynasty, but it was only a minor improvement.
At least, the "taxation system based on land area" of the Qing Dynasty a hundred years later was much more advanced than the "One Whip System".
Of course, in addition to agricultural taxes, commercial taxes also have many problems...
But the question is, what's the use of knowing so much? !
Zhu Ping'an sat in front of the window, looking at the darkness outside, silently reciting Zuo Zhuan. What made Zhu Ping'an sigh was not the sentence "the first attack is strong, the second is weak, and the third is exhausted", but what Cao Gui said to his fellow townsman, "those who eat meat are vulgar and cannot plan for the long term."
I don’t want to sit in the audience and watch the show, I want to perform on stage...
Why... ...
Zhu Ping'an shook his head and smiled bitterly. He knew it was unrealistic. This was not a novel. He was just a small sixth-rank official, so how could he have the qualifications to perform on stage
However, Zhu Ping'an's gaze towards the window became more determined.