Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

Although taxes were lowered in the early Han Dynasty, ordinary people still had trouble making ends meet.

At the end of that year, Emperor Wen of Han lowered the tax rate again from 15% to 30%.

Later, he announced to the world that land tax would be exempted directly.

【Agriculture is the foundation of the world, and there is no greater task than this. Now people work hard but are required to pay taxes, which is the same as the basics. It is not a good way to encourage agriculture. Eliminate the taxes on the land! 】

It is not known whether it was because of this great benevolent policy, but in the following thirteen years, nothing happened within the territory of the Han Dynasty, not even disasters, wars, epidemics, or droughts.

Zhu Gaochi had to admire Emperor Wen of Han's courage.

This was a case of one person cutting off the country's largest source of fiscal revenue in such an ancient era.

Later, Emperor Wen of Han lifted the ban on all mountains, rivers, forests and marshes in the world, allowing private mining and salt making.

The profits from salt and iron were distributed to the people, and suddenly wealthy businessmen emerged all over the world.

Emperor Wen of Han also abolished the Guanchuan system that restricted population movement, removed the checkpoints set up in various places, and allowed the people and merchants to move freely.

As a result, throughout the Han Dynasty, the court's annual fiscal revenue from commerce alone skyrocketed.

That’s all.

The key is that the lives of ordinary people have undergone earth-shaking changes.

After the abolition of the land tax, the enthusiasm of the Han people for farming was fully mobilized.

Zhu Gaochi could imagine the scene even with his toes.

Everything you grow is your own property, so how can you not be enthusiastic?

It turns out that the more you plant, the more you earn. The lazier people, as long as they have enough food and clothing, will not work too hard.

Now that everything belongs to me, I must work as hard as I can.

More food means more people and more land can be opened up.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the national population was only 14 million. By the late period of Emperor Wen, in just twenty years, it had skyrocketed to 31 million.

Here, Zhu Gaochi suddenly realized that Emperor Wen of Han was really playing a big game of chess.

It is true that land tax is no longer collected, but there is still a head tax!

The annual head tax of 31 million people is definitely a huge income for the country.

And everyone is willing to do so.

Isn't this better than the imperial court going door to door and painstakingly collecting the thirty percent tax on land, which amounts to only a few bushels of rice?

Every household has food reserves, and the surplus can be sold.

Commercial tax can also be collected here.

As a result, the tax revenue of the Han court increased instead of decreased, and the grain in the granary was stagnant, causing it to rot and become inedible.

The copper coins in the treasury were piled up like mountains, and the ropes used to string the coins together had rotted.

In the later period, Emperor Wen of Han directly distributed rice, meat and wine to the elderly over 80 years old every month, and silk was also distributed regularly to those over 90 years old.

For an emperor like this, Zhu Gaochi wanted to write a big "admiration" on it.

Moreover, according to records, during the 23 years of Emperor Wen's reign, he never built a palace or a garden, and he never purchased new clothes, carriages, horses, and daily utensils; all of them were already in the palace.

Emperor Wen of Han was diligent and frugal throughout his life, which allowed him to take over the throne smoothly. The father and son achieved the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing.

Emperor Wen of Han even allowed his grandson to conquer all directions and expand the territory with the wealth he had accumulated for him.

This is what Zhu Gaochi really thinks the emperor looks like.

In comparison, what the Zhu family did made Zhu Gaochi feel extremely ashamed.

My great-grandfather always said that we should cherish the common people, and he often ate meals in the palace to commemorate the bitter past.

But in reality, that's it.

The imperial city of the capital was built on a larger scale than his father's Forbidden City today.

Not to mention that there is a half-built and abandoned Ming Zhongdu in Fengyang.

Apart from anything else, the money used to build these three imperial cities, if converted into copper coins and distributed, could cover the entire territory of the current Ming Dynasty.

Whether it is his royal grandfather or his father.

According to Zhu Gaochi's thoughts at this time, he was far inferior to Emperor Wen of Han, and did not deserve the praise of loving the people like his own children.

It was only after reading this that he realized that his wife was actually quietly and alone following the same path as Emperor Wen of Han.

Our very kind Crown Princess is the one who truly serves the country and the people.

Moreover, Zhang Xin is walking fast and steadily on this road.

Zhu Gaochi felt that he had not provided any help to Zhang Xin.

There was no exemption from land tax or corvee labor.

There are a lot of people who hold us back.

Excessive issuance of banknotes and an empty treasury.

The covetous Jiangnan gentry and the unreasonable father.

The Lijia system and Luyin proposed by Zhang Xin before have not been reformed yet. From the beginning to the end, they have been restricting people's travel and trapping people in the places where they were born and raised.

At present, the greatest support he can give to Zhang Xin is to ask his father to lift the maritime ban and support Zhang Xin in maritime trade.

Strictly speaking, it has nothing to do with him. It was Zhang Xin himself who made his father see the benefits of maritime trade, which led to the lifting of the maritime ban, resulting in the current booming development of maritime trade.

In addition to employing craftsmen from the palace, the two royal shops run by Zhang Xin were all run by Zhang Xin, a group of female officials, and his princess aunts.

Everyone has witnessed how fast the development was during the first ten years of the Yongle reign.

He is indeed not as good as his own wife.

During the Hongwu reign, his royal grandfather was actually also taking the path of gradually reducing the land tax, but he did so gradually over a period of more than thirty years.

At this point, Zhu Gaochi roughly calculated that, except for the heavy taxes in the south of the Yangtze River, the land tax in other places was about 15%.

Moreover, the land tax in the Ming Dynasty was that even if one did not farm, one had to pay taxes if one planted mulberry trees, opened an orchard, had a fish pond, or cultivated woodland.

Even so, finances have always been tight.

At the end of the Hongwu period, the common people's lives were really difficult, and the court officials were all miserable. The rich were still rich, and the poor were always poor.

But no one had ever thought that they could change the situation bit by bit like Zhang Xin did.

Both the emperor and his grandfather as well as the court officials always said that agriculture was the foundation of the world.

What can really be done for agriculture?

During these decades, apart from collecting land taxes, there was almost nothing else to do!

Even the starting point of water control and canal construction was to transport food.

But ever since Zhang Xin learned about his uncle's botanical garden, he has been actively helping his uncle collect various kinds of grain seeds.

A few days ago, I was talking about asking my fifth uncle to study how to improve farm tools.

Comparing people to others is like comparing yourself to the dead.

[Small science: The Forbidden City built by Zhu Di, now the Beijing Palace Museum, covers an area of ​​72 square meters, and the Nanjing Palace Museum built by Zhu Yuanzhang covers an area of ​​about 100 million square meters. In Fengyang County, Anhui Province, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, a Ming Zhongdu was built before the Nanjing Palace Museum, covering an area of ​​84 square meters. It took six years to build, but the construction was stopped due to "labor costs". The main building was completed that year, and it began to take shape. 】