The fifth year of the Qingli period, January 20, 1045 AD, was a special day for the Song Dynasty.
Because this is the time when each department reports its totals every year.
Whether it is the calculations within each department or the big data of the Ministry of Statistics, they must be submitted to the Constitutional Yuan.
The Ministry of Finance reported that last year's tax revenue increased by 7% compared to the previous year. The main reason was that the Liao Kingdom increased its trade volume and the Song Dynasty cracked down on tax evasion in maritime trade.
In addition, the new industrial and commercial taxes are increasing steadily every year. Although they are not as drastic as the original commercial taxes, the new commercial taxes have greatly improved business activities and increased commercial trade. Today's business prosperity is at least 30% higher than before.
In addition to finance, the growth of big data in the Ministry of Statistics is particularly obvious.
Population, agricultural development, economic development, education, military and even cultural development have all improved to varying degrees, especially the area of arable land in agriculture.
According to calculations by the National Bureau of Statistics, the newly added arable land area reached more than 9.8 million mu last year, doubling the data from the ninth year of Kaibao during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song to the fifth year of Tianxi during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song.
In the ninth year of Emperor Guangyi's Kaibao reign, the total cultivated land area in China was 295 million mu, while in the fifth year of Emperor Heng's Tianxi reign, the cultivated land area reached 525 million mu.
In other words, during these 45 years, the amount of cultivated land increased by 5.11 million mu each year.
However, that was the early days of the founding of the country by Zhao Kuang and Zhao Guangyi. After the war was settled, a large amount of abandoned arable land was reclaimed, which enabled large-scale growth.
By the time of Zhao Zhen, the country's cultivated land area had basically stabilized, and the remaining cultivated land was at most a problem of hidden households and hidden properties.
For example, in the fifth year of Tianxi, the cultivated land area was 525 million mu. Forty-two years later, in the third year of Zhiping of Emperor Yingzong of Song, the cultivated land area had dropped to 440 million mu. At least 80 million mu of farmland disappeared during these forty years.
Then, during the Yuanfeng period of Emperor Shenzong of Song, Wang Anshi carried out reforms to investigate the cultivated land throughout the country. A large number of hidden households, hidden properties and hidden fields surfaced, and it was discovered that the cultivated land area of the Song Dynasty was as much as 700 million mu.
This shows how serious the problem of hidden households and hidden property was at that time.
A few years ago, Zhao Jun conducted a national census and found that the amount of farmland was about 600 million mu.
The method he used at the time was very simple, which was to reduce agricultural taxes on a large scale across the country, but every acre of land had to be included in the government statistics.
All county governments must include this matter as a task in the performance evaluation system and strictly investigate how much land their county actually has.
Past cases of concealing household registration and property can be forgiven, but if they are not reported, the government has the right to confiscate the land without property rights and make it local official land.
At one time, a large number of landlords and powerful people were forced to report their hidden fields, resulting in an explosive growth in the amount of cultivated land at that time.
Before the imperial court lowered taxes, there were still a lot of wastelands. Because the taxes were so heavy, many people simply gave up their farmland and went to the city to work.
Therefore, in addition to the hidden households and properties of the landlords and powerful people, local governments also cleared out a lot of ownerless wasteland, turned it into government farmland and recruited tenants to cultivate it.
The annual tax revenue generated by these nearly 70 million mu of newly cultivated farmland largely made up for the fiscal deficit caused by the court's reduction of taxes, and also brought considerable benefits to local finances.
However, the period from the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the present has been a period of rapid development, and it is normal to have an annual increase of 5 million mu, but it became difficult in the middle and late stages.
For example, in the fifth year of Tianxi, the cultivated land increased by 525 million mu, and in the third year of Yuanfeng, the cultivated land increased by 700 million mu. There was a gap of 60 years in between. That is to say, during these 60 years, the cultivated land in the Song Dynasty increased by less than 3 million mu each year.
Now it has grown to 9 million mu a year, which is twice the amount before the fifth year of Tianxi and three times the amount after the fifth year of Tianxi. It is about 10 million mu every year, bringing the total cultivated land area in the country to 640 million mu, with an extremely fast growth rate.
The reason for this is, first of all, that under the policy of recuperation, the government encouraged the people to open up more wasteland and cultivate new land.
Secondly, arable land requires means of production, such as water and farm tools.
In recent years, the imperial court has asked local governments to use local finances to build more canals and include them in their political achievements. At the same time, it has built steel mills to produce a large number of steel farm tools, ensuring that the people have sufficient means of production to open up wasteland.
The last and most important point.
Special fields such as terraced fields, silt fields, sandy fields, raft fields, and lake fields appeared on a large scale in the Song Dynasty. In addition, Zhao Zhen found traditional fertilizers, so the cultivated land area and grain output naturally increased greatly.
As the area of cultivated land and grain output skyrocketed, grain prices naturally plummeted. At the same time, the prices of livestock meat such as pork, chicken, duck, and sheep also plummeted.
Especially pork, which has dropped from 27 wen per pound in previous years to 15 wen per pound now.
It is just around the corner to return to the period of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty when the price per pound was 5 wen.
After all, pigs in the Song Dynasty often ate pig grass, but this would definitely not allow them to grow fast or large. Eating rice and wheat was different. Rice and wheat were originally part of the pig feed, providing more carbohydrates and allowing them to grow faster.
Zhao Zhen also issued imperial edicts, requiring local governments to teach the people how to castrate pigs so that the pigs could concentrate on eating, which would increase their growth cycle and obesity rate.
As food prices are low, more people are feeding pigs rice and wheat, and naturally there is more pork.
The only relatively stable price is beef. The Song Dynasty explicitly prohibited the killing of cattle. Cows were used to plow the land, and only those that died of old age or accidents could be eaten, which led to the high price.
The low prices of basic necessities for survival and the high wages for working in the city obviously caused the overall economic situation of the Song Dynasty to develop in an excellent direction.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
