Days are everlasting

In the Wanli year, Emperor Shenzong launched the Battle of Ningxia in which the Mongols rebelled, the Battle of Korea in which Hideyoshi Toyotomi of Japan invaded Korea, and the Battle of Bozhou in which Yang Yinglong, the chieftain of the Miao area, rebelled. .

It is naturally beneficial to the consolidation of Ming's authority, but it is a great drag on the court and government.

However, the imperial court was not short of money. Before the Donglin Party came to power, although the treasury of the Ming Dynasty was empty, there was still a lot of money in the internal funds.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the business tax was not restored because of the relationship between commerce and the collection method of one out of [-] was adopted. As for agriculture, the Taizu Emperor who was born in the authentic mud leg cared most about farmers. The agricultural tax in the early Ming Dynasty not only Not high, and there are occasional reductions.

The low agricultural tax is to protect farmers, but the commercial tax is also so low that the total tax revenue of Ming Dynasty will not increase.

To give an inappropriate example, after the fall of He Shen, a famous corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty, it is said that his income was the treasury income of the Qing Dynasty for 15 years, and the annual tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty was around 8000 to [-] million taels of silver.

So what about Daming's taxes?

The total amount is about 2000 million, but according to regulations, a large part is reserved for local distribution in the form of food and labor, and the real income from Taicang is only a few million taels.

Daming's tax is low, it has been set so low since the beginning of Ming Dynasty, every time the emperor wants to increase tax, a large group of people will jump out to stop it.

The point is that the agricultural tax is fine, the commercial tax is set so low, is the whole imperial court really going to drink the northwest wind?

In order to avoid the tragic situation where the tax income from the national treasury was allocated by the local government, and only a few hundred taels were handed over, Emperor Wanli had no choice but to collect taxes after the three major levies and the treasury was empty, that is, all kinds of commercial taxes collectively.

Unlike the eunuchs who were responsible for collecting the mine tax and other items collected in the inner treasury, the deliberation tax was a tax type issued in plain text, an official tax, and later formed a customized tax.

And instead of putting it into the national treasury, it put it into internal money, which actually played a great role in alleviating the financial pressure on the imperial court.

Let's put it this way, business was very developed and prosperous at the end of the Ming Dynasty. For details, you can refer to the works of Zhang Dai, a survivor of the Ming Dynasty, such as "Tao An Meng Yi", which does not see any troubled times.

After the Donglin Party came to power, they were almost actively fighting against the emperor for commercial tax because they had a lot of ties with each other and those big businessmen.

A more typical one is the proposal recently received by Zhu Changluo from a member of the Donglin Party, which is called "issue funds and withdraw taxes".

What does that mean?It is money, and the royal treasury continues to pay out, but taxes, especially commercial taxes, are not easy to compete with the people, so let’s withdraw them!

Zhu Changluo: I will go to your eighth generation ancestors!

What is competing for profit with the people?At this time, I have to sigh with emotion that it makes sense for scholars, farmers, businessmen and merchants to be the cheapest, a group of people who only think about their own petty profits!

Farmers work hard on the land, and Zhu Yuanzhang is also a farmer, so he sympathizes with them, and the agricultural tax he collects is low. A group of businessmen only want to make money, and they say that they work harder than farmers, and ask for tax reduction. Why are they so shameless?

According to regulations, as long as the annual business volume of small businesses and small traders does not exceed 40 taels of silver, they themselves do not need to pay taxes. In the late Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax was not as high as the [-]th tax in the early Ming Dynasty. The tax rate can be reduced. , besides those big merchants, who else can there be?

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large amount of silver from the world flowed into China. This is the historical knowledge that Zhu Changluo knew before he went to university in his previous life. But looking at it now, heh, my business in Ming Dynasty is so prosperous, and there is a large amount of silver flowing into it. The price is still rising steadily, collusion between government and businessmen, big merchants, etc., can't afford it, can't afford it!

Ironically, when Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was in power, due to tax increases, the money in the treasury was ten times that of the so-called Kangxi reign in the later years of Kangxi's reign.

Chongzhen has been in power for so long after the Donglin Party, so it goes without saying that the current emperor’s internal funds, although in the late Wanli Dynasty, a large amount of military expenditures were often allocated to Liaodong. Two million taels can almost be counted as Daming Taicang's annual income, but right now, it's just a drizzle.

Of course, apart from the source, that is, the unreasonable taxation of Ming Dynasty's finances, it is also difficult to explain in terms of use.

As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang had more than 20 sons, and the sons gave birth to grandchildren, and the grandsons gave birth to sons, and the descendants were endless. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the clan alone had a population of several million.

However, Emperor Taizu didn't think about the way out when he formulated the clan system, which caused some impoverished clans to starve to death in the end.

As for the entire Ming Dynasty, a large part of the reason was that it was overwhelmed by the clan.

There are eight ranks of clan titles in Ming Dynasty, which are prince, county king, general of Zhenguo, general of Fuguo, general of Fengguo, lieutenant of Zhenguo, lieutenant of Fuguo and lieutenant of Fengguo.

It stands to reason that there are many ranks of titles, but they may not be so sincere in the actual distribution of titles. Like the Song Dynasty, the title of the king may be the heir king or the county king. If he is lowered to another level, he may not even be able to get the duke. , can only be a county magistrate.

But Zhu Yuanzhang wants his descendants to be rich forever, so what should we do?

The eldest son will not be degraded to the title, and the rest of the sons will be lowered to the next level.

In the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, because he was the boss, all the kings under him were his sons, so the clan could still manage government affairs in the local area, but after Zhu Di launched the Jingnan Campaign and succeeded, in order to prevent future generations from imitating him As a precedent, the imperial clan of the Ming Dynasty could not even touch political affairs.

Ever since, after the Yongle Dynasty, there was a situation where "the clans of the Ming Dynasty were enfeoffed but not tinned, ranked as nobles but not connected to the people, fed on salary but not governed affairs", basically the situation that the clans were raised like pigs.

Even if the clans don't want to be pigs, it won't work!

From the Ming Dynasty to Zhu Changluo's generation, the generational relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang has already exceeded the eight generations. That is to say, some clans have exceeded the inheritance range of eight titles and can only be ordinary people.

However, their titles are gone, but they are still the descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang, that is to say, they still cannot participate in the "business of the four peoples".

There is no retreat for the declining remote clans, and the rest of the clans can only be regarded as idlers in captivity, and few are enterprising.

According to the preferential treatment for future generations stipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, all clans with titles will be provided with silver, rice, and land.

Daming has to spend a lot of money every year to support these idlers, and also has to watch the land annexation that has become more severe due to the increase in the number of enfeoffed clans.

The gentry no longer needed to pay food. As more and more people took the imperial examinations, the land annexation of the Ming Dynasty itself became more and more serious. Not to mention the end of the dynasty, there was not much spare land. Under such circumstances, it is really frustrating to think about still supporting more and more clans like the early Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Changluo: ...My Ming is probably the real pill.

Of course, it doesn't mean that Zhu Changluo just discovered such a serious problem now, but that the commander of Jinyiwei reported to him the recent situation of Fu Wang Zhu Changxun, saying that he was extorting violently from the fief and taking countless money, which made Zhu Changluo express his feelings.

Fu Wang Zhu Changxun is also very incompetent in the Ming clan. The vassal kings of other families can at most work hard on the affairs of the back house. It is a good news, but the specific deeds are not obvious. The most famous one is that he gave birth to more than 70 sons. The Fu Wang Zhu Changxun worked hard in the fief, as if the whole world owed him!

Zhu Changxun is not a good guy, but there are still good people in the clan of Daming, who carefully search for it.

The most famous non-direct lineal clan is undoubtedly the emperors of the Nanming regime.

The Nanming regime had four emperors and one supervisor, namely the Hongguang regime, the Lu king's supervisor, the Longwu regime, the Shaowu regime, and the Yongli regime.

Emperor Hongguang is the current son of King Fu and Zhu Yousong of King Fu of the Chongzhen Dynasty; King Lu Jianguo is a descendant of the lineage of King Lu passed down by the Taizu. It is not a good one; Emperor Longwu is the most familiar one of Zhu Changluo, he is the king of Tang Zhu Yujian, and he is the most ambitious one. Half a month after he succeeded to the throne, he made a big fanfare to personally conscript him, and was finally attacked and killed by the Qing soldiers. And his death is the most deplorable one among the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty; the Shaowu regime was a small regime created by some people who supported his brother to ascend the throne after Zhu Yujian's death. Fighting, did not regard the anti-Qing Qing as the top priority at all.

Emperor Yongli finally went into exile in Burma, but he still couldn't escape his death. In the end, he and his relatives were dedicated to Wu Sangui and strangled to death.

Those in the Nanming regime, except Tang Wang Zhu Yujian, and Zhu Changluo looked down on them.

What Zhu Yousong and Zhu Youlang are all descendants of Ming Shenzong's lineage. They were recently elected as famous heads because of their blood relationship with Chongzhen's lineage.

But Zhu Yujian...

Zhu Changluo rubbed his temple with his thumb. Tang Wang is a descendant of the No. 20 third son of the Taizu. The current Tang Wang is Zhu Shuoyin who became a nobleman in the fifth year of Longqing. According to his seniority, he and Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, Ming Shizong Zhu Houcong was of the same generation, and Zhu Changluo was three generations behind him. According to his seniority, Zhu Changluo had to call Zhu Yujian the clan uncle.

There hasn't been any big news about Tang Wang's family yet, but Zhu Changluo remembers that Zhu Yujian's early life was very bad.

Now that he had already thought of this point, he didn't hesitate to ask the Jin Yiwei below to check it out.

The author has something to say: My Daming's finances are really, emmmmm, and the measures taken by the Donglin Party after it came to power are really hard to describe.

Tang Wang Zhu Yujian is a miserable old man, it is better to rescue him earlier, or he will be imprisoned with his father for more than ten years by the grandfather who favors the concubine, and if it is not for the kindness of the little official, he will almost starve to death. Grandpa succeeded in becoming the King of Tang Dynasty, and he recruited thousands of people to go to Beijing Chengqin King. As a result, he was considered to be evil, and was imprisoned to Fengyang, the central capital—yes, this was probably the source of inspiration for the encirclement in the Qing Dynasty—after a while It's been more than ten years, it's not the right time to be born.