Chapter 867 Xin Tribe's agricultural tax is lower?

"Of course, it is impossible to distribute cattle directly. Although our Han tribe has a large population, there are still relatively few cattle for farming. Generally speaking, according to the counties in the north of our tribe, most of the cattle are raised by the government. If the people need them, they can pay to rent them. In view of our situation, you naturally don't have much money, but you can use food to offset it.

When there are more cattle in the future, you will have money in your hands, and if you want to buy cattle, you can do so." Tiezhen explained.

"Oh, so that's the case." The eldest son of the elder pondered and replied.

Although the Han tribe was powerful, it was obviously not rich enough to give cattle directly to the people. The eldest son of the tribe elder did not expect this. As for selling them, they might not be able to afford it. Cattle were important property. If a family had a cow, it was like having a Lamborghini in this era. How many people could afford it?

Originally, he hoped that the Han tribe would lend them cattle for use, but the Han tribe did not do so. Instead, they asked them to rent them with money or food. In this way, although the Han tribe seemed a little calculative, on the other hand, the current relationship between the two sides was the best.

If they rented, they would pay a price, so they would not have to owe the Han tribe a favor. When the two sides got along, they would be more confident. This would also seem fairer. After all, they had finally gotten the cattle and raised them with their own money. Why should they let you use them for free?

The Han tribe's approach did not mean to belittle them, but also treated them as equals. At least they did not treat them as inferiors, nor did they kneel down to lick them like dogs, which made people feel very comfortable.

But this was actually just an over-interpretation by the elder's son, because the same method was used in the counties to the north of the Han tribe.

"Okay, we are willing to rent it with grain." After thinking for a moment, the elder's son made a decision on the spot.

Tiezhen looked at him, then at the elder, and a knowing smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He could see that this elder was just a shield that was pushed out, and in fact, the elder's son should be in charge of the village.

The elder was in his forties, which was considered old in this day and age, and his eldest son, the one who was talking to Tiezhen, was about thirty years old. If his child had married early, he would probably be a grandfather now, and he would indeed be qualified and energetic to be the new elder, or village chief.

Tiezhen didn't expose their tricks to their faces, but nodded and said, "Okay, since you agree, let's register the household registration now. First, calculate how many people there are in your village and how much land there is, so that we can go to the leader to apply for oxen and other things based on the land area."

"My name is Guan Tao, you can just call me by my name, I will gather the villagers now, and we will register here?" The eldest son of the elder seemed to see that Tiezhen had guessed his identity, so he simply stopped pretending and directly reported his name.

"Okay, Guan Tao, right? I think the stone mill here is good. You call all the villagers over and ask them to stand in line. We will count them according to the family unit. This time we are just registering the household registration. After the spring plowing is over in two months, we will have to apply for personal identity certificates. I heard that it is a new thing from the leader. We will talk about this later." Tiezhen didn't waste any words and decided on the spot.

Guan Tao nodded, and immediately explained a few words to the young and strong people in several surrounding villages, asking them to call people.

Seeing this, Tiezhen quickly reminded him, "Guan Tao, don't hide people without reporting. Next month, our leader's ship carrying supplies will arrive. At that time, some livestock will be distributed to the people. If you hide people now, there will be no things to distribute when the time comes."

Guan Tao was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but then nodded to show that he understood. He didn't reply and continued to explain something to the people in the village. After those people left, he quickly called a teenager to move a few stools over. Judging from his appearance, he was probably his son.

Guan Tao took the initiative to introduce to Tiezhen, "Please sit down, sir. This is my son Guan He. According to the Han tribe, he just got married at the beginning of this year. His wife is about to give birth now. Guan He, why don't you pay your respects to the sir."

"Guan He greets the sir." The teenager also learned the Han tribe's bowing and bowed to Tiezhen. Although the posture was not standard, it was also in good shape.

Tiezhen nodded and praised, "Not bad, not bad. Now that you have a son, you are an adult. You should help your father with more worries in the future."

"That's right, sir." Guan He replied a little embarrassed.

After a while, more villagers gathered here at the threshing ground. They started to line up in groups of families, and soon the whole village gathered here.

The clerk who followed took blank household registration forms from the horseback, as well as bamboo pieces and thin hemp ropes in sacks, and prepared to make household registration bamboo slips on the spot.

The next step was routine inquiries and registration. Every family came to register, and after registering, they stood on the other side of the stone mill with the newly written bamboo slips. With the cooperation of Guan Tao, the actual village chief, the registration work was carried out in an orderly manner.

The clerk who registered the household registration also asked the villagers, "Do you have a house to live in? If not, our tribe will issue a housing subsidy, and then you can find someone to build it yourself."

Although everyone asked, the villagers here obviously did not lack houses to live in, so the housing subsidy was not issued.

Generally, the clan can solve the problem of building a house and dividing the family. If a child gets married and separates, the clan will build the new house together. Anyway, they build bamboo houses and don’t need to spend money on building materials. They just need manpower, but the last thing the clan lacks is labor.

While everyone was registering their household registration, Tiezhen suggested to Guan Tao, "Guan Tao, let’s go and see the fields in your village together?"

"Okay, He'er, you help the adults here and tell everyone to cooperate. Dad will go to the fields with the county magistrate to take a look." Guan Tao explained to his son and took the lead to lead Tiezhen to the fields.

As they walked, they talked about farming.

"Sir, I heard that the Han tribe also has to hand in grain. I wonder how it is done?"

Tiezhen did not answer directly, but asked, "How did the Xin tribe hand in grain before?"

Guan Tao did not hide it. He believed that even if he did not say it, the Han tribe would be able to find out. Didn't they say that several elders who used to manage farming in the Xin tribe have now become officials of the Han tribe? Would they not know?

"When the Xin tribe was in charge before, they collected according to the amount of land. They would send people to see how much land we planted, and then divide a part of the land and give them all the grain grown." Guan Tao introduced.

It is interesting that it is not calculated according to the output, but according to the area of ​​the land. In fact, it is similar to the Han tribe. The Han tribe calculates the output and then draws according to the output. In fact, both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The Xin tribe does not have a unified standard weight unit, nor does it have a scale, nor a fixed volume unit, so it is simplest to directly draw according to the land area.

But there is a loophole. If you designate the land for tax payment when sowing, the people may be too lazy to care about that land. It doesn't matter whether the land grows well or not, because the grain harvested from that land must be handed in anyway.

The final result will be that the crops on the land reserved by the people grow well and the harvest is large, but the land used for tax payment has many weeds and the crops do not grow well, so not much grain can be harvested.

If the land for tax payment is designated temporarily when it is mature, the people will not be lazy, because they don't know which land will be used for tax collection, so they will plant well. However, as long as the Xin tribe is not stupid, they will definitely collect the land that grows well, so the people will suffer.

In short, this method of extracting according to the land area will always cause one party to suffer.

Compared with the method of the Xin tribe, the method of collecting taxes in the Han tribe is more complicated. It is calculated according to the output and collected according to the volume, but there are relatively few loopholes.

Anyway, no matter how much grain you grow, I will give you a commission based on the total volume of the output. If your harvest is not good this year, I will collect less tax. If your harvest is good, I will collect more tax. You can plant well or not, anyway, no matter how you plant, I will give you a commission based on the output.

"Did the Xin tribe pay a lot?" Tiezhen asked again.

This? How to answer?

Guan Tao didn't dare to say anything nonsense. If you say you pay a lot, the Han tribe will consider it. If you say you pay less, will the Han tribe collect more?

So Guan Tao didn't answer the question of whether it was a lot or not, which represented his attitude. He just replied lightly, "In the Xin tribe, it was generally one tenth of the land according to the number of acres."

Tiezhen nodded. The Xin tribe didn't collect much tax, mainly because they didn't have much expenses, and corn was not easy to store, so it was useless to collect so much.

During the Xin tribe period, they had two main expenses for collecting grain. One was to collect a large amount of grain and exchange it for enough salt from the salt households in Xianfeng County. Then they used the salt to trade with the herdsmen on the grassland in exchange for livestock furs. This was one point.

The other point was to feed the miners of the Xin tribe. As a tribe with relatively developed metal smelting, the Xin tribe naturally needed a lot of miners. These miners mined all year round and were not familiar with farming, but they also had to eat and feed their families. The collected grain became their rations.

However, the Han tribe had greater expenses. Collecting only 10% was enough, but they also had to save some money, right?

(End of this chapter)